c^ 


y 


EKRATA. 

Page  18,  sixth  line,  the  date  1791  should  be  1771. 

Page  74,  in  Table  II.,  second  column,  opposite  Methodist 
Episcopal^  the  figures  should  be  145,138,  instead  of 
12.5,138.     The  second  total  should  be  079,70.5. 

Page  99,  fourth  line  from  bottom,  "  Benjamin  .Jackson" 
should  be  Benjamin  Johnson. 

Page  511,  seventh  line,  the  word  fifth  should  he  fourteenth. 

In  the  foot  note  on  page  134,  the  name  of  one  of  our 
Bishops  is  spelled  "  Thompson,"  The  p  should  be 
omitted. 


WESLEV   AT   TWENTY-THREE. 


THE  CENTENNIAL  ^^  )V|, 


4 


OF 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM. 


A  Full  Report  of  the  Services  held  in  People's  Church, 

Boston,  Mass.,  October  21-23,  1890,  with 

Additional  Historical  Material. 


EDITED  BY 

REV.  GEO.  A.  CRAWFORD,  Ph.D. 


IIvLUSTRATED. 


BOSTON,  MASS.: 
CRAWFORD   BROTHERS, 

36  Bromfield  Street. 

1891. 


Copyright,  1890, 
By  Rev.  George  A.  Crawford. 


McDonald,  Gill  &  Co. 

PRESS  OP  THE  "  CHRISTIAN  WITNESS,' 
BOSTON,    MASS. 


3X 


TO   OUR 

MOTHER, 

WHO, 

AS  THE  WIFE  OK  A   METHODIST  ITINERANT, 

BORE  SO   LONG  AND   SO   PATIENTLY  THE  BURDENS  INCIDENT  TO 

SUCH  A   LIFE, 

THIS    LITl'LE  VOLUME  IS 


oj  SDcbicatcb 


BY  TWO   OF   HER 

^  AFFECTIONATE  SONS. 


3U2275 


PREFACE. 

The  Publishers  cannot  hope  that  this  book  will 
meet  with  uniform  approval,  since  they  are  not  satis- 
fied with  it  themselves.  By  this  they  do  not  mean 
to  be  understood  as  having  any  doubts  concerning 
the  value  of  the  work  for  which  they  solicit  the 
patronage  of  their  fellow  Methodists.  We  most 
assuredly  believe  that  we  are  giving  to  each  purchaser 
the  Aill  value  of  the  price  asked. 

But  the  general  theme  of  this  book  has  opened  so 
wide  and  so  fertile  a  field  of  investigation,  that  we 
have  often  wished  that  we  had  the  time  and  means 
necessary  for  the  publication  of  a  much  larger  volume 
than  this.  Many  things  which  must  be  omitted 
from  a  book  with  the  limitations  of  the  present 
volume  would  repay  preservation  in  permanent 
shape. 

Had  some  of  our  brethren  in  the  ministry  been 
more  willing  to  help  us,  we  should  have  been  able  to 

Civ] 


PREFACE.  V 

give  a  more  complete  idea  of  the  progress  of  Method- 
ism in  New  England,  by  means  of  sketches  of  typical 
churches.  Our  appeals  met  with  no  response  from 
East  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  Rhode 
Island. 

We  are  under  the  greatest  obligation  to  the  Editor 
and  Publisher  of  Zio7is  Herald,  from  which  admir- 
able paper  we  have  taken  the  excellent  descriptions 
of  our  literary  institutions. 

May  the  record  of  the  second  century  of  Methodism 
in  New  England  be  even  grander  and  more  heroic  !^ 

Crawford  Brothers. 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  I .  —  Tuesday  Evening. 

FASB 

Address  by  Rev.  Dr.  C.  S.  Rogers 1 

"        "   Bishop  Foster 4 

"        "  Rev.  Dr.  Hugh  Johnston H 

Communication  from  the  New  York  Preachers'  Meeting    .  27 

Address  by  Rev.  Dr.  A.  M.  Courtenay 28 

Chapter  II.  —  Wednesday  Morning. 

Address  by  Ex-Gov.  William  Claflin 47 

"        "   Rev.  Dr.  J.  W.  Hamilton •'il 

"        "  Rev.  Dr.  J.  H.  Twombly TO 

Poem  by  Rev.  Dr.  Mark  Trafton ^6 

Response  to  New  York  Preachers'  Meeting ^•■> 

Chapter  III.  —  Wednesday  Afternoon. 

Address  by  Hon.  Charles  E.  Kimball 99 

"        "  Rev.  Dr.  G.  S.  Chadbourne 104 

"        "  President  B.  P.  Raymond Hfi 

Poem  by  Rev.  Dr.  George  Lansing  Taylor 12G 

Chapter  IV.  —  Wednesday  Evening. 

Remarks  by  Hon.  Alden  Speare 137 

Address  by  Rev.  Dr.  D.  A.  Whedon 137 

«'        "  President  W.F.  Warren 155 

"        "  Rev.  Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley l"?-! 

[vil] 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  V.  —  Thursday  Morning. 

Remarks  by  Hon.  O.  H.  Durrell 193 

Address  by  Rev.  Dr.  J.  E.  C.  Sawyer 193 

"        "  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  Parkhurst 206 

"        "  Rev.  Dr.  J.  M.  King 217 

"        "  Rev.  Dr.  D.  H.  Ela 2.37 

Chapter  VI.  —  Thursday  Afternoon. 

Remarks  by  Rev.  W.  I.  Haven 253 

Address  by  Bishop  W.  F.  Mallalieu 256 

"        "  Rev.  Dr.  S.  F.  Upham 266 

"        "  Rev.  Dr.  F.  H.  Bristol 284 

Chapter  YII.  —  The  Banquet. 

Remarks  by  Hon.  C.  C.  Corbin 303 

Speech  by  Bishop  Mallalieu 305 

"  Governor  Brackett 311 

"  Rev.  Dr.  Courtenay 314 

"  Mayor  Hart 322 

"  Hon.  E.  H.  Dimn 325 

"  Rev.  Dr.  Buckley 328 

"  Rev.  Dr.  Bristol 334 

"  Rev.  W.N.  Brodbeck 340 

"  Rev.  Dr.  Bates 346 

Chapter  VIII. 
Progress  of  Thought  in  the  M.  E.  Church 351 

Chapter  IX. 
Influential  Men 365 

Chapter  X. 
Methodism  in  the  Country  Towns 375 

Chapter  XI. 
The  Arminianism  of  Wesley :  Whence  was  it  ? 385 


CONTENTS.  IX 

Chapter  XII.  —  The  Celebration  on  the  Common. 

Poem  by  Kev.  A.  J.  Hough 393 

Address  by  Rev.  Dr.  Bates 397 

Chapter  XIII. 
Life  of  Father  Taylor 409 

Chapter  XIV.  —  Otir  Universities, 
Wesleyan 415 

Chapter  XY.  —  Our  Universities.  — Concluded. 
Boston .   .    422 

Chapter  XVI.  —  Our  Seininaries. 
East  Maine  Conference 433 

Chapter  XVII.  —  Our  Seminaries.  —  Continued. 
Maine  Wesleyan "   '    441 

Chapter  XVIII.  —  Our  Seminaries.  —  Continued. 
New  Hampshire 449 

Chapter  XIX.  —  Our  Seminaries.  —  Continued. 
Vermont 455 

Chapter  XX.  —  Our  Seminaries.  —  Continued. 
Wilbraham 467 

Chapter  XXI.  —  Our  Seminaries. —  Continued. 
East  Greenwich 475 

Chapter  XXII.  —  Our  Seminaries.  —  Concluded. 
Lasell 481 


X  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  XXIIL 
Historic  Milestones 488 

Chapter  XXIV.  —  Typical  Churches. 

Bromfield  Street,  Boston 497 

St.  John's,  South  Boston 500 

Tremont  Street,  Boston    .   .    .  '. 600 

People's  Church,  Boston 508 

Chapter  XXV.  —  Typical  Churches.  —  Continued. 

Common  Street,  Lynn 511 

Norwalk,  Conn 513 

Asbury  First,  Springfield,  Mass 517 

Chapter  XXVI.  —  Typical  Churches.  —  Concluded. 
Chestnut  Street,  Portland,  Me 519 

Chapter  XXVII. 
Zioii'sHerald 526 

Chapter  XXVIII. —  Other  Institutions. 

Boston  Correspondence  School 530 

Deaconess'  Home  and  Training  School 538 

Chapter  XXIX.  —  Other  Institutions.  —  Concluded. 

Immigrants'  Home 543 

Wesleyan  Home 549 

Appendix. 


FIRST  METHODIST  PREACHING  HOUSE  IN  BOSTON. 


CENTENNIAL 


New  England  Methodism. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  First  Session  of  the  Centennial 
Convention. 

The  Centennial  Convention  began  its  sessions  in 
the  People's  Church,  Boston,  Mass.,  on  Tuesday  even- 
ing, Oct.  21,  1890.  There  were  present  upon  the 
platform,  Bishop  R.  S.  Foster;  Rev.W.  N.  Brodbeck  ; 
Rev.  Drs.  J.  W.  Lindsay,  William  R.  Clark,  J.  W. 
Hamilton,  G.  A.  Crawford,  R.  L.  Greene,  C.  S.  Rog- 
ers, Hugh  Johnston,  of  Toronto,  Ontario,  A.  M.  Cour- 
tenay,  of  Baltimore,  Hon.  E.  H.  Dunn,  of  Boston,  and 
many  others. 

Rev.  Dr.  Rogers,  Secretary  of  the  Combined  Com- 
mittee   of     Arrangements,    announced     the     hymn 

beginning, 

"  Oh,  for  a  thousand  tongues  to  sing," 

after  the  singing  of    which   the    Rev.    Dr.    Lindsay 
offered  prayer. 

Rev.  Dr.  C.  S.  Rogers  said  :  "  Dear  Fathers  and 
Brethren :  A  few  weeks  since,  in  company  with  two 
companions,  I   was  crossing  one   of  the   celebrated 


2  CENTENNIAL   OF 

passes  of  the  Swiss  Alps.  After  several  hours  of 
tramping,  we  came  to  an  eminence,  from  which  we 
could  at  once  review  the  way  already  trodden,  and 
see,  in  part,  the  course  yet  to  be  pursued.  Behind  us, 
far  in  the  distance,  was  the  little  hamlet  from  which 
we  had  set  out  in  the  morning,  and  the  road  over 
which  we  had  passed,  zigzagging  up  the  mountain. 
Above  us  could  be  seen  snatches  of  the  same  road, 
stretching  on  to  other  and  higher  summits,  and,  far 
above  all,  robed  in  snowy  mantles  and  bathed  in  the 
glory  of  the  noonday  sun,  appeared  the  lofty  Alpine 
peaks,  standing  like  majestic  sentinels  at  the  gateway 
of  the  heavens. 

"  To  such  a  prominence  have  we  come  in  the  his- 
tory of  New  England  Methodism.  From  the  vantage 
ground  of  a  hundred  years,  with  nearly  a  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  members  in  the  fold,  besides  the 
larger  host  that  has  passed  on  before,  we  turn  our 
eyes  back  to  the  small  beginning  of  a  century  ago, 
and  exclaim,  '  What  hath  God  wrought ! ' 

"  From  this  eminence  we  also  turn  our  eyes  to  the 
future,  and  behold  other  and  not  less  difficult  heights 
to  be  gained ;  but  we  hear  the  Master  sa3%  '  Lo,  I  am 
with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.' 

"  It  is  fitting  that  we  pause  at  the  opening  of  a  new 
century  of  our  denominational  life  in  New  England, 
and,  while  we  devoutly  and  gratefully  recognize 
God's  guiding  hand  in  the  past,  gather  new  inspira- 
tion for  the  arduous  work  of  the  future.  Actuated 
by  this  thought,  the  New  England  Conference,  at  the 
session  held  in  Worcester,  in  April,  1889,  appointed 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  d 

a  commission  to  act  with  a  similar  commission, 
appointed  by  the  Methodist  Historical  Society,  to 
arrange  for  the  suitable  celebration  of  the  permanent 
introduction  of  Methodism  into  New  England  in 
1790,  by  the  ministry  of  Jesse  Lee.  The  work  of 
this  joint  commission  is,  in  part,  embodied  in  the 
programme,  which,  together  with  the  list  of  officers 
which  it  contains,  I  herewith  present  for  your  ac- 
ceptance. 

"  The  Commission  appointed  by  the  Historical  Soci- 
ety was  composed  of  the  following  members  :  —  Minis- 
ters:—Rev.  Drs.  J.  W.  Hamilton,  R.  W.  Allen,  D. 
H.  Ela,  G.  S.  Chadbourne,  Joseph  H.  Mansfield,  and 
W.R.Clark;  Laymen:  — Hon.  E.  H.  Dunn,  Hon. 
Jacob  Sleeper  (since  deceased),  and  Dwight  Smith. 

"  The  Commission  appointed  by  the  Conference  was 
constituted  as  follows:— Rev.  Drs.  C.  S.  Rogers, 
J.  W.  Hamilton,  George  M.  Steele,  J.  H.  Twoinbly, 
and  W.  F.  Warren.  Laymen:  — L.  C.  Smith, 
Charles  E.  Kimball,  C.  Edwin  Miles,  M.D.,  O.  H. 
Durrell,  and  Hon.  C.  C.  Corbin. 

"  I  propose  to  you  for  your  endorsement  the  fol- 
lowing list  of  officers  for  the  Convention  :  — 

"President,  Bishop  Randolph  S.  Foster,  D.D., 
LL.D  ;  Vice-presidents,  Rev.  R.  W.  Allen,  D.D., 
Rev.  W.  I.  Haven,  Hon.  W.  P.  Dillingham,  Hon. 
Alden  Speare,  Hon.  A.  B.  Wright,  Hon.  O.  C.  Ward, 
E.  J.  Hill,  Esq.,  Judge  L.  E.  Hitchcock,  Rev.  N.  D. 
George,  D.D.,  Hon.  William  Claflin,  LL.D.,  Hon.  C. 
C.  Corbin,  Charles  E.  Kimball,  Esq.,  Horace  W.  Gil- 
man,  Esq.,  Hon.  R.  S.  Douglas,  O.  H.  Durrell,  Esq., 


4  CENTENNIAL   OF 

Hon.  H.  H.  Shaw  ;  Secretaries,  Rev.  C.  S.  Rogers, 
D.D.,  Rev.  G.  A.  Crawford,  D.D. ;  Local  Committee 
of  Management,  Rev.  R.  L.  Greene,  D.D.,  J.  Sumner 
Webb,  Esq.,  Z.  A.  Nichols,  Esq. ;  Committee  on 
Flowers,  Mrs.  Edward  S.  Kelly  ;  Committee  on  Reso- 
lutions, Rev.  W.  R.  Clark,  D.D.,  Rev.  D.  C.  Knowles, 
D.D.,  Rev.  F.  D.  Blakeslee,  D.D.  ;  Committee  on 
Credentials,  Rev.  J.  M.  Leonard,  Rev.  W.  T.  Perrin." 

Continuing,  Dr.  Rogers  said  :  "  I  have  the  pleasure 
of  introducing  to  you,  as  the  Chairman  of  the  even- 
ing. Bishop  Randolph  S.  Foster,  whom  you  all  know, 
and  he  needs  no  introduction." 

Bishop  R.  S.  Foster  said  :  ."  We  will  join  in  the  use 
of  the  third  hyn)n.  It  is  the  Fellowship  Hymn  of 
our  Church  in  all  the  world  :  — 

"  '  Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds, 
Our  hearts  in  Christian  love.'" 

After  the  singing.  Bishop  R.  S.  Foster  said  :  "  Those 
of  you  who  hold  the  programme  (or  '  prog^  ramme,' 
as  it  is  pronounced  now)  for  the  evening  in  your 
hands,  are  informed  that  you  are  to  be  addressed  by 
two  distinguished  gentlemen,  one  from  the  Provinces, 
and  one  from  Maryland.  It  would  be  improper  that 
I  should  occupy  any  considerable  amount  of  your 
time  before  they  are  introduced.  I  can  scarcely 
introduce  them  without  saying  a  word. 

"  I  think  it  cannot  be  colisidered  immodest  that  a 
people  who  have  attained  the  respectable  age  of  one 
hundred  years  should  consider  it  worth  while  that 
they   should   celebrate    their  anniversary,  and   espe- 


KBW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  5 

cially  since  the  history  of  the  people  is  somewhat 
noticeable,  indeed  very  remarkable.  It  is  question- 
able whether,  in  the  history  of  the  race,  there  is  any 
parallel  to  it,  as  I  think  will  appear  to  you  if  you 
consider  some  of  the  facts  which  I  will  recite,  a 
few  of  them  to  serve  as  a  text  for  the  orators  of 
the  evening. 

"  Methodism  had  existed  in  the  United  States  for 
about  thirty  years  before  it  attempted  to  enter  New 
England.  New  England  was  considered  as  sealed  up, 
as  walled  around,  as  impenetrable  to  the  new  and 
already  growing  sect.  Disfavored  in  New  England 
because  of  its  theology  and  because  of  the  theology  of 
New  England  —  for  they  were  strongly  antagonistic  — 
the  new  sect  was  considered  as  in  every  respect  not 
to  be  tolerated,  as  teaching  abominable  heresies,  dan- 
gerous to  public  interest,  and  in  every  way  to  be 
discountenanced.  After  a  considerable  progress  and 
growth  in  New  York,  and  southward,  and  westward, 
so  far  as  there  was  a  west,  one  brave,  heroic  spirit  of 
Methodism  undertook  to  penetrate  the  tightly-walled 
and  earnestly-defended  regions  of  New  England.  He 
appeared  here  a  hundred  years  ago.  Methodism, 
which  we  celebrate  to-night,  one  hundred  years  ago 
was  represented  by  that  one  heroic  soul  on  the  Com- 
mon of  your  city,  standing  under  one  of  the  elms  of 
the  time,  and  upon  a  table,  preaching,  amid  a  disor- 
derly crowd,  the  doctrines  of  the  new  sect. 

"  The  difference  between  the  present  and  that  soli- 
tary man  represents  the  growth  and  progress  of 
Methodism  in  New  England.     He  appeared  here  just 


6  CENTENNIAL   OF 

ill,  perhaps,  the  acme,  the  very  summit  of  the  power  of 
Calvinistic  theology.  New  England  was  girded 
around  from  the  beginning  with  the  doctrines  of  an 
iron-bound  sj^stem.  Jonathan  Edwards  had  been 
dead  only  twenty-five  years.  There  were  mutterings 
of  resistance  against  the  tlieological  teaching  of  the 
prevailing  sect  at  that  time.  The  Baptists  here  were 
themselves  as  Calvinistic  as  the  Standing  Order.  All 
the  traditions,  all  the  feeling,  all  the  thoughts  of  the 
whole  of  New  England  were  identified  with  the  Cal- 
vinistic theology.  There  Avere  mutterings  of  dissent 
in  the  body.  There  were  indications  of  an  approach- 
ing reformation,  revision,  which  is  the  order  of  the 
day  now,  and  indications  that  there  would  not  long 
be  toleration  of  the  terrific,  fearful  tyranny  of  the 
prevailing  doctrines  and  ideas. 

"Jesse  Lee  came  here,  bearing  a  different  gospel 
from  any  which  had  ever  been  preached  in  New  Eng- 
land ;  a  gospel  of  free  salvation,  of  universal  atone- 
ment, of  possible  conscious  conversion  and  regeneration 
by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  the  possibility  of  having  an 
experience,  the  subject  of  which  should  knoiv  that  he 
had  passed  from  death  unto  life,  and  had  become  a 
child  of  God,  — a  doctrine  unknown  and  untaught  at 
that  time,  in  all  the  regions  of  these  New  England 
States. 

"  The  Standing  Order,  the  prevailing  denomination, 
had  a  marvellous  history,  an  honorable  history,  and 
vigor  and  learning.  It  had  raised  up  the  most  power- 
ful theologians  since  the  Reformation.  It  is  safe  to 
say  that  New  England  has  contributed  tlie  most  power- 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  i 

ful  minds  to  theological  thought  and  discussion  that 
have  been  contributed  by  any  part  of  the  world.     The 
old     civilizations,    Christianities,    have     reared     no 
stronger  men  than  the  Emmonses,  Edwardses,   and 
Beechers,   and  those  great  heroes  that  were  already 
on  the  stage  or  had  just  passed  away.      It  was  in  the 
glow,  and  triumph,  and  acme  of  these  great  brethren 
when    Methodism   entered   the    field.      Dissent  had 
begun  to  appear  in  the   body.     It   soon   broke   out. 
Channing  was  born  the  very  night  Jesse  Lee  entered 
New  Euo'land.*     The  father  of  Unitarianism,  so-called 
liberal  Christianity,  of  the  broader  view  of  Christian 
doctrine,  was  then  in  his  cradle,  when  Jesse  Lee  was 
standing  on  Boston  Common,  and  dissent  had  already 
been  carried  forward  for  half  a  generation  before  Uni- 
tarianism was  born,  and  undertook  to   modify    this 
theological    system.      The    modifying    influence    of 
Methodism  in  twenty  years  had  made  it  possible  for 
the  outburst  of  resistance  to  the  doctrine,  from  with- 
in the  body  itself.     And  now,  since  that  time,  I  have 
simply  to  recite  what  will  serve  as  a  text  for  these 
meetings.     Please  remember  that  Methodism  entered 
New  England,  finding  the  domination  of  tlie  trium- 
phant theology,  which  no  man  living  in  New  England 
dared  to  resist,  which  was  enforced  by  social  power 
and  civil  power,  Avhich  dominated  the  whole  mind  of 
New  England  as  a  tyranny,  which  made  it  impossible 
•  to  speak  freely  in  dissent  f roin  the  popular  creeds, 
and  it  opened  its  mission  here  under  the  frown  and 
tremendous  resistance  of  this  great  body. 

"  One  hundred  years  have  passed ;  and  now,  in  this 

*  See  Note  in   Appendix. 


/ 


8  CENTENNIAL  OF 

New  England,  where  Methodism  met  with  prompt 
resistance,  where  it  was  heard  of  only  to  be  despised 
and  condemned,  where  the  pulpit  and  the  press 
flamed  against  it,  where  the  social  life  armed  itself 
against  it,  whore  it  found  no  welcome,  in  this  hun- 
dred years  has  grown  to  be  —  I  fear  to  state  the 
fact  —  here  in  New  England  where  we  are  accustomed 
to  consider  ourselves  tolerated  as  on  probation. 
But  Methodism  here  has  attained  to  the  magnificent 
number  of  150,000  communicants  ;  more  communi- 
cants in  Methodism  in  New  England  than  in  the 
Congregational  Church  in  New  England  ;  has  built  a 
Church  right  here  where  it  was  tabooed ;  built  a 
Church  larger  than  the  original  that  inhabited  and 
possessed  the  New  England  states. 

"  I  say  nothing  of  its  operations  beyond  this ;  it  is 
like  a  dream.  It  is  as  a  dream.  It  only  remains  to 
speak  of  the  growth  and  enlargement  of  this  wonder- 
ful and  divinely  planted  religion,  in  these  United 
States,  and  in  all  the  world.  There  are  now,  in  New 
England,  900  Methodist  churches.  There  are  150,000 
communicants  in  New  England.  There  are 
810,000,000  of  church  property  in  New  England. 
There  are  $4,000,000  of  educational  property  in  New 
England.  JNIetliodism  has  grown  in  a  hundred  years 
from  nothing  —  not  from  nothing,  but  from  Jesse  Lee 
under  the  elm  on  Boston  Common  —  to  be  the  great 
institution  which  we  find  it  now  to  be,  in  all  its 
enlargement  and  in  all  its  possibilities. 

"  I  have  gathered  these  few  figures  to  indicate  the 
fact  which  we  are  here  to  celebrate.     I  am  not  able 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  9 

to  speak  of  the  amount  of  money  raised  in  New 
England  every  year,  for  the  dissemination  of  the 
gospel  in  all  the  world,  and  for  carrying  on  all  the 
benevolences  of  Christian  denominations,  such  as 
ours.  It  broadens  theology,  in  the  divine  sense  of 
the  word ;  preaching  and  teaching  a  free  and  full 
salvation,  proclaiming  the  equity  of  the  divine 
throne,  and  the  love  of  God,  as  no  other  sect  has 
ever  done,  from  the  beginning  until  now. 

"  I  cannot  take  my  seat,  without  saying  one  word 
further.  It  is  supposed  in  New  England,  about 
Boston,  that  so-called  liberal  theology  is  one  of 
the  great  factors  of  the  time  in  which  we  live.  It  is 
impossible  for  us  to  get  away  from  the  shadow  of 
that  thought ;  it  seems  to  pervade  the  air.  It  is,  in 
a  certain  sense,  a  great  factor,  for  it  has  educational 
antecedents,  it  has  hereditary  culture,  it  has  reared 
mau}^  great  minds,  all  the  way  between  Channing 
and  Parker,  and  one  in  Boston  who  is  worse  than 
Parker.  All  the  possibilities  of  diverse  thought  are 
in  this  institution.  And  I  am  here  to-night  to  say 
that  Methodism  has  always  been  respected  by  this 
broad  and  liberal  Christianity,  patronized,  patted  on 
the  back,  and  called  by  fraternal  names.  I  have 
been  told,  since  I  have  been  in  Boston,  that  we  were 
closely  allied  to  the  liberal  Christianity  of  Boston  ; 
that  we  had  close  affinities.  You  understand  to  what 
I  refer,  to  the  Unitarian  Universalist  sect.  Because 
we  preach  a  universal  atonement,  and  the  possibility 
of  universal  salvation,  and  because  we  dissent 
utterly  from  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Calvinism, 


10  CENTENNIAL   OF 

therefore,  we  have  been  credited  as  having  close 
affiliation  with  this  so-called  liberal  Christianity, 
that  is  in  the  air,  that  looks  with  pride  and  arrogance 
out  upon  the  Republic,  and  calls  it  its  own.  Are 
you  surprised  to  hear  that  there  are  ten  Methodists 
in  New  England,  for  every  liberal  Christian  in  the 
United  States? 

"  This  Methodist  Church  in  New  England  presents 
ten  men  and  women  who  profess  to  be  converted  by 
the  power  of  God,  and  know  it,  to  each  liberal 
Christian  in  the  United  States,  that  denies  the  possi- 
bility of  salvation  in  Jesus  Christ,  to  say  nothing  of 
its  growth  and  advancement  in  all  the  world  besides. 
It  boasts  that  it  is  the  parent  of  learning.  Method- 
ism turns  out  five  students  from  its  universities, 
where  it  turns  out  one.  Methodism  has  endowed 
colleges  by  scores,  where  it  lias  endowed  colleges  by 
ones.  Methodism  stands  leading  the  great  magnifi- 
cent movement  of  free  thought  and  divine  relig- 
ion in  all  the  world  to-day,  counting  its  followers  by 
millions,  its  ministers  by  scores  of  thousands  in  all 
the  woiid,  as  compared  with  this  little  sect,  which  is 
diminished  to  seventeen  thousand  in  the  United  States. 

"  I  have  the  pleasure  to  introduce  a  distinguished 
speaker  from  the  Province  of  Canada ;  a  minister,  in 
great  honor,  from  the  city  of  Toronto ;  filling  one  of 
its  important  pulpits ;  known,  and  honored,  and 
respected  for  his  learning  and  eloquence,  and  honored 
with  the  Presidency  of  one  of  the  Conferences  in  the 
Provinces.  I  am  permitted  to  introduce  Dr.  Hugh 
Johnston,  who  will  now  address  you." 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  11 

Rev.  Dr.  Johnston  said :  "  Bishop  Foster,  Brethren 
and  Friends :  I  thank  you  for  your  pleasant  words. 
I  feel  it  a  very  great  privilege  to  be  permitted  to 
share  in  the  rejoicings  of  this  New  England  Centen- 
nial of  Methodism,  and  am  honored  to  bear  to  this 
Christian  gathering,  in  this  distinguished  centre  of 
religious  influence,  the  greetings  of  the  Methodist 
Church  of  Canada.  You  have  abundant  reason  for 
gratitude  and  gladness ;  and  when  the  Methodist 
flag  is  flying  so  high  and  so  briglit,  you  will  accept,  I 
am  sure,  the  loving  greetings  of  a  daughter  church, 
the  greetings  of  a  million  grateful  Metliodist  hearts. 

"This  also  is  the  Centennial  year  of  Canadian 
Methodism,  sir,  and  we  unite  with  you,  in  gratitude 
for  the  past,  joy  for  the  present,  and  hope  for  the 
future.  And  we  renew  our  pledges  of  loyalty  to  the 
doctrines  and  polity  of  tliat  system,  whose  elements 
of  power  have  come  out  so  triumphantly  from  the 
tests  of  a  hundred  years  of  church  life.  We  are 
filled  with  wonder  at  the  story  of  your  progress,  as 
given  in  the  pregnant  words  of  your  Chairman. 
You  have  become  a  power  and  a  glory  in  the  land  ; 
and,  as  we  gaze  upon  the  pinnacles,  and  towers,  and 
battlements  of  your  Zion,  we  cry  out,  '  Peace  be 
within  thy  walls,  and  prosperity  within  thy  palaces,' 
oh,  Methodist  Church  of  New  England  !  '  For  my 
brethren  and  companions'  sake,  I  will  now  saj^ 
peace  be  within  thee  ! ' 

"I  count  it  a  special  honor  to  stand  upon  this 
platform  to-night :  First,  because  I  come  to  you 
from  a  sister  nation,  and  there  are  so  many  things  at 


12  CENTENNIAL  OF 

work  to  divide  and  separate,  that,  as  Christians  and 
members  of  one  family,  we  ought  to  nourish  and 
treasure  everything  that  helps  to  cement  the  bonds 
of  peace.  We  are  of  one  language  and  one  race. 
The  elder  brother,  Jonathan,  and  young  Canada,  have 
liad  considerable  trouble  down  east,  over  a  string  of 
fish,  while  in  the  Behring  Sea  the  seals  have  had  to 
submit  to  being  skinned  by  both  boys.  There  is 
seeming  rivalry  at  Ottawa  and  Washington,  in  build- 
ing up  the  tariff  walls  higher  and  higher,  and, 
instead  of  unrestricted  commerce,  both  are  trying  to 
put  asunder,  by  trade  barriers,  what  God  hath  joined 
together.     Yet,  spite  of  all,  we  are  one  people. 

"  '  And  thicker  than  water  through  century's  story, 
Our  Saxon  blood  has  flowed ; 
And  still  we  share  the  good  and  ill, 
The  shadows  and  the  glory. ' 

"  You  have  drawn  from  us  more  than  a  million  of 
the  best  brawn  and  blood  of  our  Canadian  sons. 
When  your  nation  was  passing  through  its  mighty 
and  memorable  trouble,  hundreds  of  the  Canadian 
subjects  of  Queen  Victoria,  among  them  my  own 
brother,  shouldered  their  muskets,  and  marched  with 
the  boys  in  blue, '  shouting  the  battle-cry  of  freedom.' 

"  The  United  States  and  Canada  —  palsied  be  the 
tongue  that  would  stir  up  strife  between  them  !  —  let 
peace  and  mutual  love  prevail,  and  let  them  be  '  One 
and  inseparable,  now  and  forever.'  The  other  reason 
is  because  of  family  ties.  As  Methodists,  we  are  one, 
and  must  remain  one  the  world  over. 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  13 

"  '  Mountains  rise  and  oceans  roll 
To  sever  us,  in  vain.' 

"  But  while  yon  are  proud  of  your  national  history, 
and  recount  that  history,  we  claim  kinship.  We 
feel  we  are  under  the  roof  of  the  old  folks  at  home 
to-night,  and,  as  a  Canadian,  therefore,  I  thank  you 
for  the  heartiness  of  your  welcome.  You  take  me  in, 
and  annex  me ;  you  make  me  to  realize  that  I  am  no 
more  a  'stranger  and  foreigner,  but  a  fellow-citi- 
zen with  the  saints,  and  of  the  household  of  faith.' 

"  This  occasion  is  particularly  fitting  for  Canadian 
Methodists,  not  only  to  offer  congratulations  and 
hearty  God-speeds,  but  to  renew  their  grateful 
acknowdedgments  to  American  Methodism  and  to 
New  England  Methodism.  In  tracing  a  river  to  its 
source,  many  springs  are  often  found,  and  it  is  not 
always  easy  to  distinguish  headwaters  from  tribu- 
taries. William  Black,  one  of  Wesley's  own  converts 
—  a  name,  I  am  sure,  honored  in  this  city,  —  William 
Black  was  the  apostle  of  Methodism  in  the  eastern 
Provinces,  preaching  in  Nova  Scotia  in  1781,  his 
first  text  being  that  of  Bishop  Asbury  ;  '  I  deter- 
mined to  know  nothing  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ 
and  him  crucified.'  But  no  sooner  was  American 
Methodi&m  organized  at  the  Christmas  Conference  of 
1784,  than,  in  response  to  an  appeal  for  help,  the 
heroic  and  heavenly-minded  Freeborn  Garrettson, 
with  another,  was  appointed  to  Nova  Scotia  and  New 
Brunswick.  That  young  but  seasoned  veteran  in 
the  Master's  service  never  witnessed  more  trium- 
phant scenes  of  saving  mercy  than  in  those  Provinces ; 


14  CENTENNIAL  OF 

and  when,  after  two  years,  he  returned,  being  needed 
for  a  larger  field,  he  left  over  seven  hundred  members. 
So  in  Upper  and  Lower  Canada,  while  the  first 
Methodist  local  preachers  were  British  officers,  yet 
the  first  regular  itinerant  was  William  Losee,  who,  in 
January,  1790,  made  his  way  from  Lake  Champlain 
circuit  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  kindling  a  flame  of 
revival  along  the  Bay  of  Quint  shores.  Li  October 
of  the  same  year,  the  New  York  Conference  appointed 
him  to  Canada. 

"You  are  recalling  the  heroic  age  of  Methodism, 
when  men  of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy 
carried  her  banners  and  vindicated  her  theology 
against  a  world  in  arms. 

"  Among  these  standard  bearers  is  a  name  pro- 
nounced with  loving  reverence, —  the  name  of  Jesse 
Lee,  whose  memory  fills  the  Church  Avith  fragrance 
to-night,  as  the  precious  ointment  filled  the  house 
at  Bethany.  Some  of  you  may  not  know  how 
closely  we  are  linked  with  these  heroic  deeds. 
The  first  preacher  to  Canada  was  appointed  in  con- 
nection with  Jesse  Lee's  first  New  England  district, 
and  for  years  we  were  a  part  of  Freeborn  Garrettson's 
district.  In  1791  came  Dunham  with  Losee.  They 
came  to  your  own  land  with  Shadford,  to  whom  Wes- 
ley said :  '  I  let  you  loose,  George,  on  the  great  con- 
tinent of  America.  Publish  your  message  in  the 
open  face  of  the  sun,  and  do  all  the  good  you  can.' 

"  The  moral  destitution  of  the  country  was  great ; 
for,  in  the  two  Provinces,  there  were  only  seven  or 
eight  ministers  to  care  for  the  entire  Protestant  popu- 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  15 

lation.  But  these  gospel  rangers  itineranted  in  the 
power  of  the  Spirit.  Others  followed.  James  Cole- 
man and  Elijah  Woolsey,  inured  to  toil  and  privation  ; 
Samuel  and  Michael  Coates,  graceful  and  impressive, 
consecrated  and  anointed  for  the  work ;  Hezekiah 
C.  Wooster,  a  man  of  mighty  faith  and  prayer,  from 
whom  the  unction  never  departed,  whose  flaming  zeal 
consumed  him,  who,  near  the  end  of  his  triumphant 
ministry,-  unable  to  speak  above  a  whisper,  yet  with 
illumined  countenance  would  so  preach  with  the 
power  sent  down  from  heaven,  that  sinners  trembled 
and  fell  under  his  words  like  men  slahi  upon  the 
battle-field.  These  pioneers  belonged  to  the  '  Thun- 
dering Legion,'  and  so  greatly  were  tlieir  labors 
owned  that,  when  this  nineteenth  century  dawned, 
there  were  nearly  a  thousand  members  in  the  Church 
in  Canada. 

"  Tlie  heroic  career  of  the  first  preacher  had  rather 
an  inglorious  termination.  There  were  beautiful 
lasses,  sir,  among  the  Methodists  then  as  to-day,  and 
on  his  first  circuit  he  fell  deeply  in  love  with  a  young 
lady  of  great  personal  attractions.  But  before  he 
had  gained  her,  his  successor,  an  ordained  young  man, 
was  attracted  by  the  same  fair  object,  and  won  her 
hand  and  her  heart.  Poor  Losee  was  disconsolate. 
His  mind  became  unbalanced,  and  he  became  unfitted 
for  the  duties  of  the  ministry.  I  mention  this  simply  as 
a  warning  to  the  '  sons  of  the  prophets.'  And  to  my 
fair  young  lady  hearers,  that  tliey  trifle  not  with  the 
affections  of  any  ardent,  inexperienced  young  divines 
of  the  Boston  School. 


16  CENTENNIAL  OF 

*' '  So,  Lady  Flora,  take  my  lay, 

And  if  you  find  no  moral  there, 
Go,  look  in  any  glass  and  say 
What  moral  is  in  being  fair.' 

"We  liave  not  yet  done  with  Lee's  influence  on 
Canadian  Methodism.  One  of  the  fruits  of  his  min- 
istry in  Connecticut  was  Lorenzo  Dow,  that  eccentric 
gospel  ranger,  who  became  the  fii-st  itinerant  in 
Lower  Canada.  Another  was  Nathan  Bangs.  In 
1802  Bangs  hibored  on  the  Canadian  Circuit,  from 
Kingston  to  Little  York;  and  in  180-fthe  young 
preacher  explored  and  mapped  out  the  work  of  western 
Canada,  from  London  all  the  way  to  Detroit. 

"  Still  further,  in  one  of  your  seaboard  towns  of 
Massachusetts,  there  was  born,  in  1780,  William  Case, 
who  became  one  of  the  most  trusted  leaders  of  Cana- 
dian Methodism.  This  generation  of  Methodists 
cannot  turn  its  face  backward  without  seeing  on  the 
far  horizon  the  stalwart  form  of  this  venerable  man, 
the  father  of  Indian  Missions  in  Canada.     And  so 

"  '  The  heroes  of  our  days  of  old 
Are  yours,  not  ours  alone ; 
Your  Christian  heroes  of  to-day, 
We  love  them  as  our  own.' 

"These  men  were  men  whose  hearts  God  had 
touched,  and  they  toiled  for  the  welfare  of  their 
fellows  and  the  glory  of  God.  They  had  not  the 
learning  of  the  schools,  but  they  were  the  best-read 
men  of  their  age,  in  biblical  and  practical  theology;  and 
in  the  fierce  polemical  encounters  of  those  days  manj'- 
a  Calvinistic  Goliath  staggered   and  fell  under  the 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  17 

sling  and  stone  of  an  Arminian  David.  They  tell  of 
one  who  was  wont  to  complain  that,  though  he  carried 
an  English  grammar  in  his  hat  for  six  months,  he 
never  could  get  it  into  his  head.  And  you  remember 
that,  when  Jesse  Lee  was  asked  if  he  had  a  liberal 
education,  his  answer  was,  '  Tolerably  enough,  I 
think,  to  carry  me  through  the  country.'  But  his 
wit  and  knowledge  of  Dutch  enabled  him  to  overcome 
the  lawyer,  who,  assailing  him  with  questions  in  Latin, 
was  answered  in  that  tongue  which  the  limb  of  the 
law  mistook  for  the  sacred  Hebrew.  They  knew 
little  of  Greek  and  Latin,  but  they  had  the  best  of 
all  tongues  for  a  Methodist  preacher,  '  the  tongue  of 
fire.'  They  had  not  the  authority  of  the  Church  in 
its  formal  signs  and  seals,  but  they  showed  they 
were  in  the  Apostolical  Succession,  by  their  apos- 
tolical success.  They  were  filled  with  the  con- 
suming, passionate  zeal  for  the  salvation  of  men, 
and  like  Stanley,  who  has  just  plucked  the  heart  out 
of  the  mystery  of  the  Dark  Continent,  or  like  Loyola, 
whose  flaming  devotion  to  the  crucifix  encompassed 
the  world,  these  devoted  servants  of  Jesus  Christ  were 
glad  to  suffer  and  die,  if  need  be,  for  their  Lord  and 
Master. 

"  '  There  were  giants  in  those  days.'  Giants  indeed. 
You  remember  at  the  Charleston  Conference,  in 
1800,  four  of  the  Methodist  preachers  went  to  a 
friend  and  got  weighed.  The  four  together  weighed 
nine  hundred  and  seventy-six  pounds.  We  have  not 
many  such  successors,  although,  in  the  parliamentary 
debate  over  Romanism,  Sir  John  McDonald  said  that 


18  CENTENNIAL  OF 

our  Dr.  Potts  with  a  shillalah  would  be  more  than  a 
match  for  any  half  dozen  of  them. 

"  In  1811  Bishop  Asbury,  the  devoted  friend  of  Lee, 
made  his  first  visit  to  Canada.  He  confesses  to 
strange  feelings  which  came  over  him  as  he  was  cross- 
ing the  line.  He  had  left  his  native  land  in  1791, 
and  when  the  Revolution  broke  out,  he  bravely  stood 
at  his  post  to  save  the  Church.  He  had  lived  to  see 
the  tyranny  of  the  British  government  overthrown, 
for  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  the  act  of  a 
colony  of  Englishmen  filled  with  the  spirit  and  sus- 
tained by  the  traditions  of  British  freedom.  He  had 
lived  to  see  the  United  States  become  a  mighty 
Republic,  and  the  Church  whose  affairs  he  had  been 
called  to  superintend,  growing  to  a  thronging  multi- 
tude of  175,000  souls.  Now  he  is  again  under  the 
old  flag,  in  the  presence  of  the  mother  country,  to 
visit  people  raised  up  by  his  own  sons  in  the  gospel. 
No  wonder  he  experienced  such  new  feelings  when  in 
Canada. 

"  Besides  all  this,  there  was  doubtless  thrown  over 
his  saintly  spirit  the  shadow  of  the  conflict  with  that 
government  from  which  he  had  expatriated  himself 
forty  3^ears  before,  for  the  sake  oi  building  up  the 
kingdom  of  Clu'ist.  The  war  of  1812  followed,  the 
most  unjustifiable  and  fratricidal  strife  in  the  annals 
of  two  great  nations.  I  am  glad  that  New  England 
opposed  it  from  the  first,  and  continued  to  oppose  it. 

"  After  this  struggle,  in  1815,  the  Genesee  Confer- 
ence resumed  its  work  in  Canada.  The  British  mis- 
sionaries had  entered  Lower  Canada,  and  were  ready 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  19 

to  take  possession  of  Upper  Canada.  But  why  should 
the  American  Church  witlidraw  ?  The  whole  coun- 
try belonged  Methodistically  to  them.  Why  should 
they  be  under  any  restraint  from  any  political  rela- 
tions ?  And  may  not  missionaries  go  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth  to  preach  the  gospel  ?  Placed  in  a  position 
of  considerable  delicacy,  the  American  brethren  acted 
with  great  circumspection,  and  when,  in  1817,  the 
Genesee  Conference  was  held  in  Canada,  Bishop 
George  presiding,  a  revival  broke  out  during  the 
conference,  and  so  profound  was  the  impression  upon 
the  public  mind,  that  fourteen  hundred  members 
were  added  to  the  Church.  But  the  enemies  of 
Methodism  and  religious  freedom  were  ready  to  make 
a  sinister  use  of  the  fact  that  its  teachers  were  citizens 
of  a  foreign  nation,  and  so,  in  1828,  with  the  consent 
of  the  Baltimore  Conference,  we  set  uj)  housekeeping 
for  ourselves,  an  independent  Church,  with  a  member- 
ship of  nearly  one  hundred  thpusand. 

"  This,  however,  did  not  satisfy  the  High  Church 
party,  who  continued  to  misrepresent  the  motives  and 
conduct  of  the  Methodist  preachers,  until  the  first 
reply  shot  against  the  exclusive  claims  of  the  domi- 
nant Church  was  fired  by  our  Jupiter  Tonans,  Dr. 
Edgerton  Ryerson,  then  a  probationer  of  twenty-three 
years  of  age,  and  the  battle  ceased  not  until  the 
equality  of  all  denominations  before  the  law  was 
established,  and  the  constitutional  rights  of  the 
people  of  Upper  Canada  secured.  Honor,  all  honor, 
to  the  name  of  Ryerson,  Edgerton  Ryerson. 

"  No  monument  raised  over  him  can  be  too  high,  for 


20  CENTENNIAL   OP 

he  it  was  who  not  only  led  in  this  victory  over  relig- 
ious intolerance,  but  he  it  was  who  planned  and 
perfected  for  Ontario  a  national  system  of  education, 
unsurpassed,  if  it  indeed  is  equalled,  by  any  other 
system  in  the  world. 

"  Since  the  day  we  assumed  the  status  of  an  indepen- 
dent Church,  we  have  never  ceased  to  cherish  the 
memory  of  the  filial  relation  of  former  years.  We 
are  proud  of  our  descent,  and,  like  yours,  our  history 
has  been  one  of  fervent  zeal,  heroic  endurance,  rapid 
progress,  and  lofty  achievement. 

"In  1833  we  became  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church,  followed  by  divisions.  But  when  peace  was 
restored,  there  came  an  era  of  unprecedented  prosper- 
ity. In  1874  came  the  union  of  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church  of  Canada,  the  Wesleyan  Confer- 
ence of  Eastern  British  America,  and  the  Methodist 
New  Connection  Church.  The  results  of  this  union 
were  so  gratifying  that  it  led  to  the  union  of  all  the 
other  branches  ;  the  Primitive  Methodist,  the  Bible 
Christian,  and  the  Episcopal  Methodist.  In  1883  we 
stood  before  the  world  a  united  Church  ;  and  now, 
from  the  shoi-es  of  Newfoundland  to  tlie  shores  of 
British  Columbia,  where  the  waters  of  the  Pacific 
murmur  tlieir  evening  benedictions,  there  is  but  one 
Methodist  Church  in  Canada. 

"  We  number,  sir,  to-day,  1,750  ministers,  234,000 
church  members,  and,  according  to  the  census,  at 
least  a  million  of  people,  the  largest  Protestant 
denomination  in  the  Dominion.  We  have,  as  our 
field   of    labor,    a    territory  larger  than  the    United 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  21 

States,  with  Alaska  thrown  in.  True,  some  of  it 
lies  pretty  far  to  the  north,  but  ours  you  know 
is  the  only  modern  nation  mentioned  in  the  Scripture, 
the  dominion  of  which  extends  '  from  sea  to  sea,  and 
from  the  river  (St.  Lawrence)  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth.' 

"  If  you  boast  of  Boston  as  the  '  Hub  of  the  Uni- 
verse,' we  also  boast  of  having  one  of  the  axles,  — 
the  north  pole.  True,  it  is  not  acres  but  great  men 
that  go  to  make  up  a  great  nation  ;  yet  there  is  some-, 
thinsr  in  extent  of  domain,  and  I  am  reminded  of  that 
fine  allegorical  fresco  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington, 
which  pictures  the  pioneers  of  the  Pacific  States,  as 
they  reach  the  crest  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the 
motto  under  it :  — 

"  '  The  spirit  grows  with  its  allotted  space, 
The  mind  is  narrowed  in  a  narrow  spliere.' 

"  Ours  is  no    pent-up   Utica.     There   is  room  for 

expansion.     Like  you,  we  are  seeking  to  mould  and 

direct  the  nation's  life.     Your  Church  began  with  the 

nation's  life,  and  it  has  grown  with  her  growth  and 

strengthened   with    her   strength.      Kingly   builders 

were  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  when  they  came,  not   to 

build  for  dominion  or  renown,  but  for  freedom,  for 

conscience,  for  God.     On  the  first  Sabbath,  in   the 

open  air, 

"  '  Amidst  the  storm  they  sang 
And  the  stars  heard,  and  the  sea, 
And  the  sounding  aisles  of  the  dim  woods  rang 
To  the  anthem  of  the  free.' 

"And  from  the  day  when  Jesse  Lee  stood  on  Boston 
Common  and  preached  that  gospel  of  free  grace,  that 


22-  CENTENNIAL   OF 

anthem  of  freedom  has  been  swelling  louder  and 
louder  over  the  continent.  We  know  how  mucli  you 
are  doing  to  purge  the  national  life  from  all  evil. 
We  know  how  much  you  had  to  do  in  creating  a 
national  sentiment  against  that  vile  system  wliich 
John  Wesley  called  '  The  sum  of  all  villainies.' 
And  we  know  how  much  it  is  due  to  the  Methodist 
Church  that  to-day  President  Harrison  looks  out  over 
a  broad  nation  of  sixty  millions,  and  sees  not  a  slave- 
holder or  a  slave. 

"■  We  monarchists  are  very  republican  in  our  church 
government,  and  you  republicans  are  very  monarchi- 
cal. We  have  one  General  Superintendent  to  bishop 
us  ;  you  have  many  apostolical  bishops  to  superintend 
you.  But  our  people  enjoy  religion  as  you  do.  Our 
Class  Meetings,  Love  Feasts,  and  Prayer  Meetings 
are  '  seasons  of  peace  and  sweet  delight,'  and  we 
swerve  not  an  iota  from  the  essentials  of  Methodist 
teaching,  usage,  and  polity. 

"  In  the  Sunday  School  work,  of  all  the  Protestant 
schools  in  Canada  more  than  half  the  scholars  are 
Methodist  scholars,  and  nearly  half  the  teachers  are 
Methodist  teachers.  We  have  more  than  tliree  thou- 
sand cliurches,  and  the  total  church  property  in  A'alue 
exceeds  twelve  millions  of  dollars.  We  build  for  the 
rich  as  well  as  for  the  poor.  We  are  tlie  People's 
Church  indeed,  and  we  make  room  for  all.  Our  INlet- 
ropolitan  Church  in  Toronto,  the  monument  of  our 
grandly-gifted  Punshon,  was  pronounced  by  your 
grandly-gifted  15ishop  Foster  to  be  the  most  complete 
in   all   its  iippointments  of   all  Methodist  churches. 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  23 

Since  then  we  have  built  tlie  St.  James,  in  Montreal, 
not  only  the  stateliest  in  Methodism,  but  one  of  the 
finest  ecclesiastical  edifices  in  the  Protestant  world. 
We  rejoice  then  that  we  are  engaged  in  this  work 
with  you.  Our  Missionary  Society  never  had  a 
stronger  hold  upon  the  aifections,  liberality,  and 
prayers  of  our  people. 

"  The  Indian  Mission  which  your  Church  inaugu- 
rated has  been  greatly  blessed,  and  our  Mission  to 
Japan  has  been  one  of  the  most  successful  in  the  his- 
tory of  modern  missions.  We  have  there  a  mission- 
ary band  that  would  do  honor  to  any  Church.  When, 
last  summer,  one  of  our  missionaries  was  murdered, 
his  brave  wife  threw  herself  between  her  husband  and 
his  murderers,  and  was  cut  down,  barely  escaping 
with  her  life.  In  the  delirium  that  followed  for  days, 
she  was  praying  constantly  for  his  murderers, '  Father, 
forgive  them.'  The  other  night  that  widow  stood 
before  a  crowded  congregation  in  Toronto,  with  her 
marred  face  and  her  mutilated  hands,  pleading  for 
Japan,  and  while  she  pleaded  the  tears  ran  down  the 
faces  of  the  people  in  sympathy  with  her,  her  Christ- 
like spirit  and  work. 

"  We  have  not  neglected  higher  Christian  education. 
Our  Church  was  the  first  to  establish  a  University  in 
the  Province  of  Ontario,  which  now,  by  the  Federa- 
tion Scheme,  becomes  a  part  of  the  National  Univer- 
sity. You  sympathized  with  us  in  the  calamity 
which  destroyed  that  stately  pile,  of  which  Ave  were 
so  proud,  the  Toronto  University.  But  that  noble 
institution  is  not  dead,  and,  henceforth,  our  destinies 


24  CENTENNIAL  OF 

are  linked  with  it  in  the  higher  education  of  our 
Province. 

"  We  'are  fighting  two  great  evils ;  Rum  and 
Romanism.  We  are  determined  to  outlaw  the 
liquor  traffic,  and,  unless  you  make  more  rapid 
strides,  we  shall  yet  be  ahead  of  you  in  the  effort, 
and  in  securing  total  prohibition  of  the  infamous 
traffic  from  the  entire  land.  In  the  words  of  your 
immortal  chieftain,  'We  will  fight  it  out  on  this 
line,'  if  it  takes  another  century. 

"  The  other  evil  is  Jesuitism.  The  Province  of 
Quebec  groans  under  a  despotism,  the  most  compact 
and  highly  organized  type  of  Roman  Ultramontanism  ; 
and  these  mischievous,  plotting  birds  of  the  night  are 
making  that  priest-ridden  province  the  basis  of  assault 
upon  our  public  schools,  and  all  our  free  institutions. 
With  you  this  irrepressible  conflict  is  also  waging. 
We  have  had  cur  first  struggle  over  our  '  Jesuits' 
Estate  Act,'  and  it  did  not  end  in  a  victory  like  your 
own  over  the  Boston  School  Board.  But  it  has 
united  Protestantism  in  the  purpose  to  preserve  their 
rights.  We  are  beginning  to  ask  the  question,  Who 
rules  Canada,  Queen  Victoria  or  the  Pope  ?  Whose 
foot  is  on  the  shores  of  our  Dominion,  the  foot  of  the 
British  Lion  or  the  foot  of  Leo  of  the  Tiber?  And 
we  are  beginning  to  say  to  these  plotting  and  intrig- 
uing sons  of  the  Black  Pope :  '  You  Jesuit  fathers,  you 
shall  have  all  the  rights  and  liberties  that  we  have ; 
liberty  of  thought,  liberty  of  speech,  liberty  of  the 
press,  liberty  of  worship,  British  liberty,  and  fair  play  ; 
but  we  lift  up  our  hands  to  heaven  and  swear  by  the 


KEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  25 

Almighty  that  you  shall  not  do  for  us  what  you  have 
done  in  Spain,  what  you  have  done  in  Mexico,  what 
*  3^ou  have  done  in  Austria,  what  you  have  done  in 
Italy, — you  shall  not  rule  us.'  (Applause.)  I  see 
here  the  spirit  of  the  Boston  women. 

"  In  all  the  churches  there  are  tendencies  toward 
union,  and  the  asperities  of  a  hundred  years  ago  are 
passed  away.  The  Five  Points  that  used  to  be  dis- 
cussed between  Calvinism  and  Arminianism  have 
almost  vanished  out  of  sight.  They  are,  indeed, 
points,  and  vanishing  ones. 

"  At  our  General  Conference,  held  last  month  in 
Montreal,  a  delegation  from  the  General  Assembly  of 
United  Presbyterians  came  to  us,  bearing  a  golden 
censer  filled  with  the  fragrant  spices  of  fraternal 
thought  and  feeling,  and  one  of  the  eloquent  speakers 
declared  that  he  saw  no  reason  why  the  Methodist 
and  Presbyterian  Churches  shoukl  not  at  once  unite. 
I  fancy  there  would  need  to  be  some  adjustment  of 
creeds  before  this  reunion  took  place,  but,  whether  we 
are  welded  together  into  organic  union  or  not,  we  are 
living  together  in  the  unity  of  the  spirit,  which  is  the 
bond  of  perfectness  and  peace. 

"  But  I  have  already  too  largely  trespassed  upon 
your  time  and  upon  your  patience.  Receive  our 
greetings  and  our  sympathetic  joys.  The  Lord  of 
our  fathers  make  you  a  thousand  fold  more  than  you 
are,  and  bless  you  as  He  has  promised.  We  see,  as 
you  have  said,  not  the  full  work  of  the  hundred  years, 
we  see  only  the  work  of  this  generation.  All  around 
you  are   the   graves  where  your  heroes  are  buried. 


26  CENTENNIAL  OF 

We  see  not  the  great  crowd  of  witnesses,  the  genera- 
tion gathered  to  the  skies.  Conkl  we  behold  the 
whole  family  of  New  England  Methodism,  on  earth 
and  in  heaven,  the  gathered  results  of  these  years, 
our  hearts  would  be  jubilant,  and  the  hallelujahs 
would  swell  from  our  lips.  You  have  not  only  the 
prestige  of  success,  but,  like  your  army  veterans, 
march  forward  with  the  'swing  of  victory.'  We 
will  imitate  your  godly  zeal,  your  faith,  your  earnest- 
ness, and  will 

"  'Travel  home  to  God 

In  the  way  our  fathers  trod.' 

"  We  will  stand  with  you,  sir,  where  work  is  hard- 
est, the  battle  is  hottest.  What  we  need  most  of  all 
is  a  richer  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  preserve 
the  ancient  spirit  and  win  new  victories. 

"  '  We  are  living,  we  are  dwelling, 
In  a  grand  and  awful  time; 
In  an  age  on  ages  telling, 
To  be  living  is  sublime. 
Hark,  the  onset!    Will  you  fold 
Your  faith-clad  arms  in  lazy  lock  ? 
Up,  oh  up,  thou  drowsy  soldier! 
Worlds  are  charging  to  the  shock. 

"  'Worlds  are  charging,  Heaven  beholding; 
Thou  hast  but  an  hour  to  light; 
Now  the  blazoned  cross  unfolding, 
On!  right  onward  for  the  right. 
On!   let  all  the  soul  within  you 
For  the  truth's  sake  go  abroad; 
Strike!  let  every  nerve  and  sinew, 
Tell  on  ages,  tell  for  God.'  " 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  27 

Rev.  Dr.  C.  S.  Rogers  read  the  following  letter :  — 

The  Methodist  Book  Concern, 
150  Fifth  Avenue,  N.Y. 

Monday,  Oct.  20,  1890. 

In  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Preachers'  Meeting,  in  session,  on 
the  motion  of  George  Lansing  Taylor,  the  following  was  unani- 
mously adopted:  — 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Preachers'  Meeting  of  New  York 
and  vicinity,  representing  about  a  thousand  ministers,  and 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  members,  sends  heartiest  salu- 
tations and  congratulations  to  our  brethren,  the  ministers  and 
members  of  Boston  and  New  England  Methodism,  on  the 
joyful  occasion  of  the  celebration  at  Boston  this  week,  of  the 
founding  of  Methodism  there  and  in  New  England,  through  the 
blessing  of  God  upon  the  apostolic  labors  of  the  Rev.  Jesse  Lee 
and  his  coadjutors.  We  rejoice  in  the  mighty  work  which  Ncav 
England  Methodism  has  accomplished  as  a  moral,  intellectual, 
and  spiritual  factor  in  the  conqviests  of  our  Zion.  May  the  Lord 
make  ye  a  thousand  times  so  many  and  so  mighty  as  ye  are, 
and  help  us  all  to  revive  more  and  more  the  whole  work  of  God, 
that  Methodism  may  do  her  full  share  in  carrying  the  bannex'S 
of  Christ  around  the  world. 

Signed  by  order  of  the  meeting, 

Solomon  P arsons.  President, 
William  Eakins,  Secretary. 

Dr.  Rogers  then  moved,  and  it  was  voted  that  this 
communication  be  accepted,  and  the  Committee  on 
Resolutions  be  requested  to  make  a  suitable  rejDly, 
which  motion  prevailed. 

Bishop  Foster  said,  "  Let  us  join  in  singing  three 
verses  of  the  fourth  hymn  on  the  slip, 

"  '  Blow  ye  the  trumpet,  blow.'  " 

After  the  singing  Bishop  Foster  said :  "  I  have  now 


28  CENTENNIAL   OF 

the  pleasure  of  introducing  one  of  Baltimore's  favorite 
ministers,  long  well-known  and  greatly  beloved  in 
tliat  Conference  and  all  the  region  round  about,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  A.  M.  Courtenay." 

Eev.  Dr.  Courtenay  said  :  "  Mr.  Chairman,  Breth- 
ren of  New  England  and  Sisters  :  Jesse  Lee  is  the 
gift  of  the  Methodism  of  the  South  to  New  England. 
He  was  of  an  ancient  Virginia  family,  still  .extant, 
that  belonged  to  the  first  period  of  the  colonization  of 
the  Old  Dominion.  It  was  a  veritable  F.  F.  V.,  for 
Mr.  Lee  tells  us  himself  that  all  his  great  grand- 
parents, male  and  female,  were  natives  of  that 
province,  so  that,  since  lie  was  born  in  1758,  his 
ancestry  goes  back  to  the  earlier  and  purer  stream  of 
migration  from  the  mother  country.  It  was  the  vig- 
orous stock  which  grew  Virginia  soldiers,  orators, 
and  statesmen.  His  father  and  all  the  household 
were  Church  of  England  folk,  who  were  converted  to 
God  and  united  to  Methodism  in  the  first  of  that 
wonderful  series  of  revivals  that,  during  the  '70s  and 
'80s  of  the  last  century,  swept  with  a  sort  of  furious 
power  over  the  southern  counties  of  Virginia. 

"  The  Rev.  Devereaux  Jarrett  has  recorded  that, 
at  one  period,  it  was  a  question  whether  there  would 
be  anybody  left  unsaved  in  all  that  country.  It  was 
in  this  Pentecost  that  Lee  was  born  into  the  kingdom, 
in  1772,  and  nurtured  during  the  seven  years  that 
intervened  before  his  entrance  on  the  ministry.  His 
entrance  into  conference  was  delayed,  however, 
l)y  a  short  service  in  the  Continental  Array. 
Being  drafted,  he  refused  to  bear  arms  from  a  scruple 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  29 

of  conscience,  and  was  imprisoned  ;  but  at  last  was 
released  by  the  favor  of  his  Colonel,  to  serve  as  a 
teamster,  and  in  a  little  while  he  came  to  be,  by  com- 
mon consent,  a  sort  of  chaplain  to  his  regiment.  He 
was  mule-driver  on  the  march  and  a  chaplain  in 
bivouac  and  battle.  Finally,  being  released  from  the 
service  of  his  country,  he  enlisted  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Church  Militant  in  1783,  and  in  1785,  in  Asbury's 
corps  of  cavalry,  rode  with  Asbury  on  a  tour  through 
the  Carolinas  and  Georgia.  At  Charleston,  one  of 
those  strange  providences  befell  him  by  which  men's 
lives  are  bent  to  their  destined  ends.  He  met  a 
young  Massachusetts  man,  clerk  to  a  merchant  who 
entertained  them,  whose  conversation  aroused  in 
Lee's  breast  the  purpose  to  preach  there  also  the  gos- 
pel of  Christ ;  so  that  this  young  man,  whose  name 
is  drowned  in  oblivion,  was  the  unconscious  medium 
of  that  divine  message,  which  drew  Lee,  from  the  very 
outset  of  his  ministry,  to  this  land  of  the  Pilgrims. 
He  was  not  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  calling  ;  but, 
like  all  Methodist  preachers  of  his  day,  he  conferred 
with  flesh  and  blood  in  the  person  of  Asbury,  who 
steadily  refused  him  commission.  Indeed,  it  was  not 
until  a  September  day  in  1788  that  he  rode  from  Balti- 
more town  with  his  face  set  northward,  never  again 
to  look  south  until  after  he  had  preached  on  Boston 
Common. 

"As  he  left  Baltimore,  then  a  village  of  thirteen 
thousand  souls,  he  must  have  glanced  back  from  the 
eastern  hills  that  bound  the  city  to  see  the  scattered 
houses,   the   little    Methodist  chapel   in   Strawberry 


30  CENTENNIAL   OF 

Alley,  where  P>.ekiel  Cooper  had  pastoral  care ;  and 
then,  following  the  Philadelphia  higliway,  after  a 
day's  journey  he  came  to  Perry  Hall,  the  princely 
estate  of  Harry  Dorsey  Gough,  whose  mansion 
rivalled  the  manor  houses  of  Old  England,  and  where 
no  doubt  Lee  that  day  preached  to  the  congregation 
of  the  family  and  slaves  that  gathered  each  morning 
and  evening  in  the  elegant  chapel,  when  the  bells 
chimed  out  their  call  to  worship. 

"It  was  not  far  distant  that  he  rode  under  the 
shadow  of  Cokesbury  College,  long  unfinished  but 
occupied,  on  which  I  imagine  he  cast  a  glance  of  sus- 
picion and  distrust ;  for  Lee,  while  not  deprecating, 
perhaps,  the  project  of  founding  a  College,  certainly 
did,  with  a  large  portion  of  the  preachers  of  his  day, 
disapprove  the  plans  by  w^hich  Coke  and  Asbury 
sought  to  govern  it. 

"  Thence,  crossing  the  Delaware,  he  came  to  Phila- 
delphia, where  he  tarried  for  the  conference,  and,  fail- 
ing still  to  gain  Asbury 's  marching  orders  for  New 
England,  he  took  work  in  New  Jersey  until  the 
session  of  the  New  York  conference  in  the  following 
May.  There  he  gained  the  desire  of  his  heart  —  an 
appointment  to  Stamford  Circuit;  a  circuit  without 
boundaries,  without  a  plan,  without  a  church  or  class, 
and  without  a  solitary  member,  a  circuit  that  was  a 
name  and  nothing  besides,  a  mere  legal  fiction  that 
had  no  existence  except  on  the  pages  of  the  Minutes. 
So  that  he  was  literally  turned  loose  on  all  New  Eng- 
land, with  a  roving  connnission  to  preach  the  gospel 
where  he  might  find  hearers.     And  so  it  was  that,  on 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  31 

the  11th  of  June,  1789,  Methodism,  embodied  in  Jesse 
Lee,  entered  New  England. 

"  He  immediately  began  his  first  tour  of  inspection, 
and  we  read  of  him  coming  to  Norwalk,  where,  find- 
ing no  welcome  among  the  people,  nor  even  the 
shelter  of  a  ruined  barn,  nor  even  the  shelter  of  an 
orchard,  which  was  denied  him,  he  took  his  stand 
under  a  wayside  tree  and  preached  from  what  words 
but  these :  '  Ye  must  be  born  again.'  It  is  the 
battle-cry  of  Methodism.  No  birthright  in  the  cove- 
nant, no  membership  in  the  visible  Church,  no 
orthodoxy  of  opinion,  no  cultivation  in  the  ethics  of 
Christianity  'availeth  anything ';  nothing  but  to  be 
a  '  new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus ' ;  a  worthy  motto 
for  the  message  with  which  he  began  the  proclama- 
tion of  Methodism  in  New  England.  And  that  day 
Methodism  was  embodied  in  Jesse  Lee  entering  New 
England  to  stay.  He  was  not  on  a  mere  reconnois- 
ance,  but  came  that  Methodism  might  take  its  place 
in  the  settled  order  of  the  life  of  New  England. 

"  Methodism  came  as  an  army  of  occupation,  not 
like  the  armies  which  invaded  Britain  to  build  camps 
where  tliey  should  dwell  like  aliens,  but  rather  like 
the  Saxons  when  they  came  to  settle  and  build  homes 
and  assimilate  the  life  of  the  people  and  be  in  turn 
assimilated.  So  Methodism  came,  manifesting  here, 
as  she  has  everywhere,  not  only  aggressiveness  of 
spirit,  but  a  marvellous  tenacity  of  purpose.  The 
itinerary  of  Lee  during  the  following  year,  as  I  have 
traced  it  on  the  map,  is  marked  by  a  red  line  that 
traverses  all  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts,  crossing 


32  CENTENNIAL   OP 

into  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  again  and  again, 
crossing  its  own  track  until  he  visits  every  town  and 
every  viUage,  it  might  almost  seem,  every  farm-house 
—  a  veritable  road-map  of  these  states.  It  must 
measure  at  least  five  thousand  miles.  It  is  an  amaz- 
ing object-lesson  of  the  stupendous  travels  and  labors 
of  this  man.  It  is  no  wonder,  that,  passing  as  he  did 
from  place  to  place  with  such  rapidity,  he  became 
magnified  in  the  popular  imagination,  and  presently 
the  rumor  preceded  him  that  '  six  hundred  Metho- 
dists had  entered  New  England  preaching  abominable 
doctrines  and  picking  men's  pockets.'  It  is  a  possible 
thing  that  some  of  you  may  be  engaged  in  preaching 
that  sort  of  doctrine  on  the  '  woman  question,'  and  I 
think  that  while  Chaplain  McCabe  is  around  among 
the  churches,  there  will  be  a  consecrated  successor  of 
those  pick[)Ockets. 

"  But  now,  why  was  it  that  Methodism  came  to  New 
England  this  way,  from  the  south  and  so  tardily,  a 
quarter  of  a  century  after  it  had  a  foot-hold  in  New 
York  and  Maryland  ?  Long  before  the  hard  riding 
cavalry  of  Asbury  had  ever  crossed  the  Hudson,  they 
gained  their  converts  by  tens  of  thousands  south  of 
the  Susquehannah.  The  tides  of  the  influence  of 
Methodism  swept  southward  and  north-westerly,  and 
up  the  Hudson  valley,  and  across  the  lakes  into  Can- 
ada, but  as  yet  New  England  was  not  touched. 

"  I  suppose,  sir,  there  are  multitudes  of  Methodists 
who  are  not  aware  that  our  Church  began  its  career 
and  won  its  earliest  conquests  in  the  southern  prov- 
inces, years   before   Embury   was   shaken   from   his 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  33 

spiritual  sloth  by  that  godly  woman.  Strawbridge 
had  been  preaching  the  gospel  in  the  wilds  of  western 
Maryland.  He  went  evangelizing  though  the  scat- 
tered settlements,  and  he  formed  a  class  and  built  a 
church  which  is  confidently  believed  to  have  been 
the  first  in  America.  And  more  than  this.  In  the 
year  1763  he  baptized  Henry  Maynard,  a  lad  of  seven 
years,  who  lived  until  1837  in  the  vivid  recollection 
of  that  event.  The  ordinance  was  administered  at 
the  spring  by  the  homestead  of  John  Maynard,  his 
father,  a  convert  to  Methodism,  in  whose  house 
Asbury  often 'preached,  and  where  was  then  regular 
preaching  by  Mr.  Strawbridge.  And  within  sight 
was  the  liouse  where  met  the  first  class  of  Methodism, 
the  leader  of  which  was  John  Evans,  converted  to 
Christ  through  a  conversation  in  which  Mrs.  Straw- 
bridge  related  her  experience.  I  think  the  church, 
inheriting  the  unwortliy  prejudice  of  Asbury,  has 
never  done  honor  to  the  memory  of  that  man  of  God, 
Robert  Strawbridge,  an  evangelist  with  a  heart  of  fire, 
a  will  of  steel,  who  was  not  altogether  the  fiery  and 
obstinate  Irishman  that  Asbury  thought  him ;  a  man 
acute,  shrewd,  and  genial,  and  deeply  spiritual,  the 
first  of  all  his  generation  to  learn  the  only  defensible 
position  for  the  validity,  or  rather  apostolical  author- 
ity, of  his  ministry,  with  the  confirming  call  of  a 
Church  in  the  wilderness,  that  was  thus  thrust  back 
upon  her  original  rights.  The  fires  which  Straw- 
bridge  thus  kindled  on  the  rude  backwoods  altars 
spread  rapidly.  King,  Williams,  Asbury,  Walters, 
Gatch,  seizing    live   brands,  sped    abroad  as  torch- 


34  CENTENNIAL  OF 

bearers  of  the  truth,  scattering  light,  and  kindling 
flames  of  piety  everywhere.  So  that  in  1790,  of 
67,000  Methodists  in  America,  over  47,000  were 
south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  and  one-fourth  of 
all  that  number  were  of  African  birth.  There  were 
societies  in  Charleston,  on  the  French  Broad  in  Ten- 
nessee, and  in  Ohio.  In  all  these  years  the  ubiquitous 
Itinerant  (and  there  were  now  two  hundred  and 
twenty-three  of  them)  had  never  invaded  the 
down-east  States.  Why  was  it  that  none  of  all 
that  generation  of  Methodist  preachers,  not  even 
Asbury  with  his  aspiring  genius  for  conquest, 
had  ever  entered  New  England?  In  the  Christ- 
mas Conference  of  1784  there  was  not  a  Yankee. 
Incredible  as  it  may  seem  the  Church  was  founded 
and  formed  without  New  England.  No  wonder, 
brethren,  we  have  ever  since  been  tinkering  witli 
its  constitution.  If  only  ye,  the  inventors,  the 
ingenious,  the  past  masters  in  the  craft  of  building 
political  and  ecclesiastical  structures,  the  framers 
of  charters  and  tlie  founders  of  States,  the  makers 
of  creeds  and  the  breakers  of  them,  at  once  the 
iconoclasts  and  architects  in  Church  and  State,  if 
only  ye  had  been  at  Baltimore  in  the  Christmas 
Conference,  we  might  have  had  from  the  start  an 
elective  Presiding  Eldership,  an  equitable  Lay  Rep- 
resentation, and  perhaps  our  grandmothers  might 
long  ago  have  sat  in  a  General  Conference.  Let  us 
believe  they  would  have  been  wise  enough  to  give 
Jesse  Lee  the  one  vote  needed  to  make  him  a  Bishop 
in  the  Church  of  God.     And  yet  we  are  told  that  he 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  35 

made  the  most  lamentable  failure  to  elect  liimself  to 
the  most  Holy  Order  of  Matrimony.  It  seems  that 
in  one  conference — a  conference  of  old  bachelors  — 
a  brother  was  moved  to  rise  and  say  something  like 
this :  '  My  brethren,  it  has  been  borne  in  upon  me 
that  I  ought  to  marry.  I  have  sought  the  advice  of 
the  elder  brethren.  I  have  prayed  for  guidance 
from  above.  I  am  persuaded  that  it  is  my  duty 
to  change  my  state.'  When,  presently  Jesse  Lee 
arose  and  said :  '  I  doubt  not  that  the  brother 
has  earnestly  sought  the  guidance  of  God,  and  has 
even  said,  '  Lord,  thy  will  be  done  ;  but  give  me 
the  woman.'  I  was  in  the  same  state  of  mind 
myself  once,  but  neither  the  Lord  nor  the  woman 
would  consent.' 

"  But,  brethren,  it  is  certain  that  ever  since  you 
came  into  the  Conference,  the  conservatives  have 
been  having  a  hard  march  of  it.  Let  me  revert,  how- 
ever, to  the  question  with  which  I  started.  Why 
was  it  that  so  late  as  the  closing  decade  of  the  last 
century,  Methodism  had  not  yet  penetrated  New 
England?  I  judge  it  to  be  from  a  misapplication  of 
the  Methodist  dictum,  '  Go  ye  to  those  who  need  you 
most.'  There  was  a  persuasion  with  Mr.  Asbury 
that  the  scattered  settlements  south  and  west  needed 
most  the  ministry  of  our  preachers.  There  were  few 
churches  and  no  pastors,  and  Walters  tells  us  that 
the  preachers  were  most  warmly  welcomed  every- 
where. 

"  Moreover,  the  marvellous  growth  of  the  churches 
through  that  great  revival  of  the  past  quarter  cen- 


36  CENTENNIAL  OF 

tury   absorbed   the   energies   of   the  Church,  so  that 
Asbury  could  not  find  the  preachers  fast  enough  to 
supply  his  work.     Besides  which,  there  was  a  convic- 
tion that  there  was  no  religious  destitution  in  New 
England.       The    traditions    of    Puritan    piety,   the 
lingering     memories    of     the    'Great     Awakening' 
under   Edwards,  the  marvellous  successes  that  had 
followed  the  evangelism  of  Whitfield,  —  all  these  per- 
suaded Asbury  and  his  followers  that  there  was  in 
New  England  a  vital  religious  influence.     In  a  day 
without  periodicals,  they  could  not  know  the  interior 
life  of  New  England.     The  hard  Calvinism,  the  cold 
and  formal  worship,  the  arid  creeds,  its  acrid  conten- 
tions, its  sordid  worldliness,  a   fruity  of  the  union  of 
Church   and   State,  its   savage    reaction   of    opinion 
which  leavened  all  the  churches  with  Unitarianism, 
its  intense  and  bigoted  self-satisfaction  in  those  who 
held   fast  the   orthodox    traditions,  and  beneath   all 
this,  the  deep  human  craving  for  a  God  of  love,  — 
these  were  not  known  to  them.     But  soon  Lee,  in  his 
journeys,    found    himself    involved  in  disputes  over 
principles,  and  his  sermons  were  the  first  hammer- 
strokes  of  a  system  destined  to  break  in  fragments 
the  opinions  tliat  had  so  long  dominated  the  Protes- 
tantism of  America. 

"  Said  a  wag  to  one  of  Lee's  colleagues,  a  few  years 
later,  '  The  Methodists  have  beat  a  hole  through  the 
Saybrook  Platform.  If  you  can  mend  that,  you  will 
have  work  enough  here  and  welcome.' 

"  Whitfield  said  to  Dr.  Coke  on  one  occasion,  '  Sir, 
if  your  preachers  were  Calvinists,  they  would  convert 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM,  37 

America.'  And  Lee  entered  upon  the  crusade  to 
convert  New  England  in  spite  of  Calvinism,  and  he 
made,  by  God's  grace,  very  good  success  of  it ;  and 
his  followers  have  well  nigh  broken  Calvinism  to 
fragments. 

"  I  have  wondered  sometimes  what  he  would  think 
could  he  see  our  brethren  in  the  sister  churches  alter- 
ing their  creeds  without  changing  them,  and  sadly 
trying  to  find  a  form  of  words  which  may  sound  con- 
sistently while  pouring  a  new  meaning  into  them. 
I  imagine  he  would  make  heaven  rino-  with  a  Metho- 
dist  shout  of  free  grace,  full  salvation,  and  never- 
dying  love. 

"And  so  it  happened  at  last  that  Lee,  the  vanguard 
of  a  great  crusade,  came  riding  one  day  into  Boston 
town.  He  took  his  place  under  the  Old  Elm  on  the 
Common  and  began  to  sing, 

"  '  Come,  humble  sinner,  in  whose  breast 
A  thousand  thoughts  revolve ; 
Come,  with  your  guilt  and  fears  oppressed, 
And  make  this  last  resolve : 

"  '  I'll  go  to  Jesus,  though  my  sins 
Like  mountaius  round  me  close; 
I  know  His  courts,  I'll  enter  in, 
Whatever  may  oppose.' 

"  God  forbid  the  day  should  ever  dawn  in  our 
Methodism  when  it  ceases  to  sing  that  hymn  ;  ceases 
to  teach  men  they  are  sinners ;  ceases  to  call  them 
to  repentance;  ceases  to  point  the  penitent  to  Jesus, 
and  Jesus  only. 

302275 


38  CENTENNIAL   OF 

"  That  scene  beneath  the  Old  Elm  boughs,  upon  the 
classic  Common,  that  sweet  calm  evening,  is  well 
worthy  the  attempt  of  the  poet's  art.  As  you  have 
enshrined  in  golden  verse  the  story  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  as  they  landed  on  tliis  '  stern  New  England 
coast,'  in  quest  of  'freedom  to  worship  God,'  so 
may  some  genius  with  tongue  of  flame  sing  for  gen- 
erations yet  unborn  the  epic  of  Jesse  Lee. 

"  He  was  a  goodly  figure,  that  strong,  sturdy  man,  of 
bluff,  hearty,  genial  face.  He  was  young — but  thirty- 
two  —  but  wore  the  sober,  antique  garb  of  a  Methodist 
preacher.  He  was  of  enormous  stature,  and  weighed 
more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds.  It  was 
rumored  in  one  of  your  towns  that  a  '  Methodist 
preacher  was  coming  who  Aveighed  three  hundred 
pounds  and  rode  two  horses.'  I  suppose  all  the 
urchinhood  of  the  town  lined  the  highway  to  see  this 
new  acrobat.  And  I  can  fancy  their  disgust  as  he 
came  riding  one  horse  and  leading  the  other,  and  it 
dawned  upon  them  that  he  divided  the  burden  of  his 
weiglit  between  the  two  horses,  ridden  alternately. 

"  But  a  man's  physical  peculiarities  are  hardly  worth 
mentioning,  unless  they  constitute  his  noticeable  and 
distinguishing  features ;  and  in  Jesse  Lee  it  was  not 
bulk  of  body  but  the  brain  and  heart  of  him  that 
sent  him  forth  into  his  work.  He  was  of  an  excel- 
lent capacity,  but  moderate  education.  He  was 
gifted  with  fine  native  intelligence,  alert,  acquisitive, 
judicious,  practical.  He  was  no  scholar,  but  always 
a  greedy  reader.  In  the  second  of  his  New  England 
years,    the    list    of    his    reading    gives    twenty-one 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  39 

volumes,  aggregating  five  thousand,  four  hundred 
and  thirty-four  pages,  and  including  Fletcher's 
'Checks,'  all  of  Wesley's  'Notes,'  the  'Works  of 
Aristotle  '  (in  translation),  and  a  '  View  of  Relig- 
ion '  by  Hannah  Adams,  which  a  recent  critic 
praises  as  the  worthy  head-spring  of  the  litei-ature  of 
women  in  America. 

"  He  was  a  man  of  positive  convictions,  and  belonged 
to  the  left-centre  of  the  early  General  Conferences, 
being  a  moderate  progressive.  In  one  matfer  only 
(be  it  but  breathed  in  Boston)  was  he  peremptorily 
conservative,  —  he  deprecated  the  agitation  of  the 
'  delicate  question  '  of  slavery. 

"His  piety  was  profound,  and  all  pervasive,  — fer- 
vid, joyful,  enthusiastic,  a  happy  blending  of  the 
practical  and  emotional  elements,  without  a  trace  of 
mysticism. 

"  He  was  of  tireless  zeal,  travelling  more  extensively 
than  any  other  man  of  his  time  but  Asbury,  and 
laboring  more  abundantly  than  they  all  in  '  breaking 
new  ground.'  He  visited  Canada,  all  the  States,  and 
even  entered  the  Spanish  province  of  Florida,  cross- 
ing the  St.  John's  river,  and  falling  upon  his  knees  to 
pray  that  the  gospel  might  be  preached  one  day  even 
on  that  foreign  shore. 

"As  a  preacher  he  was  studiously  plain,  in  the  con- 
viction that  '  the  truth  shines  by  its  own  light,  and 
presses  on  the  conscience  b}'  its  own  weight.'  Averse, 
therefore,  to  the  arts  of  the  orator,  he  yet  spoke  con- 
vincingly, persuasively,  and  often  with  great  power. 
His  earliest   biographer   says  quaintly:    'Jesse   Lee 


40  CENTENNIAL  OF 

was  a  great  preacher,  and,  what  hath  a  pleasanter 
sound,  a  good  preacher.'  He  must  have  obtained 
eminence  in  the  public  estimation,  for  he  was  six 
times  Chaplain  to  Congress.  He  was  characterized 
by  a  homely  simplicity.  I  find  in  liim  traits  of  a 
type,  now  found  only  —  and  even  there  rarely — on  the 
great  farms  of  Virginia  and  Maryland,  the  product 
of  patriarchal  habits  of  life.  The  man  of  that  mould 
is  not  ambitious,  cares  nothing  for  money,  is  oblivious 
of  modern  problems,  save  in  politics,  reads  his  old- 
world  books,  observes  without  conscious  purpose  the 
utmost  plainness  of  manners,  is  soberly  content,  un- 
touched by  the  fitful  fever  of  our  age,  is  genial, 
humorsome,  heartily  hospitable,  suavely  courteous, 
gentle  with  women  and  children,  3'et  with  a  will  like 
thrice-tempered  steel;  intelligent,  yet,  unlike  the 
sophisticated  man  of  modern  culture,  he  has  gained 
his  strength  by  contact  with  nature,  by  reflection  on 
the  primary  verities  of  life,  by  communion  with  his 
own  soul  and  his  God,  whom  he  profoundly  rever- 
ences ;  easily  overreached  by  a  crawling  cunning,  he 
has  yet  a  largeness  and  openness  of  mind,  an  absolute 
sincerity  of  motive,  an  honest  directness  of  thought 
that  commands  respect. 

"Now  there  was  much  of  this  in  Lee,  and  it  is 
worthy  of  comment  because  of  its  influence  in  a 
strange  way  on  the  customs  of  our  Church.  He 
abhorred  with  extreme  aversion  the  least  appearance 
of  ceremony  in  our  Church ;  and,  without  doubt,  his 
influence  did  much  to  banish  tlie  '  Prayer  Book '  and 
priestly  robes  from    our   Church.      He   is   the   only 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  41 

man  who  has  left  on  record  a  description  of  the 
august  sight  of  a  Methodist  Bishop  in  full  canonicals. 
As  he  depicts  Asbury's  gown  and  bands,  you  can 
taste  his  bitter  disgust  in  the  flavor  of  his  words.  I 
surmise  it  was  due  partly  to  his  disapproval  of 
Asbury's  Bishop's  Lawn  at  ordinations  that  he  de- 
clined orders  for  five  years,  and  it  was  not  till  Octo- 
ber of  1790,  soon  after  his  first  visit  to  Boston,  that 
he  was  ordained  Deacon  and  Elder  on  successive 
days,  —  the  good  Bishop  acceding  to  his  wish  not  to 
have  on  his  gown  and  bands. 

"  Lee  was  richly  endowed  with  the  humorous  faculty. 
A  genial  glow  of  wit  illumined  his  conversation. 
He  was  a  master  of  irony,  and  right  deftly  wielded  in 
his  wordy  contests  the  sharp  blade  of  satire.  His 
was  also  that  gracious  pathos  which  belongs  to  humor, 
the  humor  that  may  be  personified  in  Hosea  Bigelow's 

'  Huldy.' 

"  'All  kind  o'  smily  'roun'  the  lips, 
And  teary  'roun'  the  lashes.' 

"  But  this  versatile  and  whimsical  temper  was 
severely  reprobated  by  many  of  the  stricter  spirits  of 
Asbury's  Ironsides,  and  unquestionably  a  suspicion 
of  levity,  more  than  anything  else,  defeated  him  in 
the  election  for  Bishop  in  1800,  when  he  came  to  a 
tie  vote  on  one  ballot  with  Whatcoat.  Yet  of  all 
men  then  in  the  Church,  so  far  as  we  can  judge  after 
this  lapse  of  time,  he  was  best  adapted  to  the  office. 
It  would  appear  that  such  was  Asbury's  opinion. 
The  great-souled,  noble  man  never  showed  a  trace  of 
aggrieved  ambition. 


42  CENTENNIAL   OF 

"  This,  brethren,  was  the  man  we  of  the  South  gave 
you.  And  New  England  has  enriched  Church  and 
State  with  men  and  with  ideas.  She  gave  of  old  an 
x\dams  for  our  Jefferson,  and  a  Putnam  for  our  Light 
Horse  Harry  Lee,  and  later  a  Webster  for  our  Chiy. 
She  led  the  crusade  for  liberty,  and  may  be  said  to 
have  given  the  South  freedom  from  a  bondage  which 
fettered  both  blacks  and  whites.  She  has  blessed  the 
Church  with  a  Bedding,  a  Bangs,  an  Olin,  and  dear 
Gilbert  Haven,  whom  we  all  learned  to  love. 

"  But,  brethren,  beloved,  the  South  gave  you,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  Jesse  Lee  and  Methodism.  After  his 
work  was  done,  when,  in  1816,  there  was  a  New  Eng- 
land Conference  with  seventy-one  preachers  and 
almost  twelve  thousand  members,  among  them  Pick- 
ering and  Hedding  stationed  in  Boston,  and  Daniel 
Dorchester  (no  wonder  he  knows  so  much  about 
statistics  if  he  has  been  figuring  all  this  time),  in 
1816  Jesse  Lee  came  back  to  die.  Stationed  in 
Annapolis,  visiting  a  camp  meeting  for  the  purpose  of 
preaching  as  he  loved  to  do  for  the  conversion  of 
souls,  he  fell  suddenly  ill  and  died  as  he  had  lived, 
homeless,  and  wifeless,  and  childless,  —  the  man  to 
whom  little  children  rau'in  love,  who  had  a  place  by  a 
thousand  hearthstones  in  all  this  land,  had  at  last  his 
weary  eyes  closed  by  the  hands  of  strangers.  They 
buried  him  in  our  Methodist  Cemetery  in  Baltimore, 
called  Mount  Olivet,  the  holy  hill,  where  we  bid 
farewell  to  those  whom  the  heavens  have  received 
out  of  our  sight,  as  we  stand  looking  and  longing 
after   them.      Honored    laymen,  whose    names    are 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  43 

woven  in  the  bright  fabric  of  our  Church's  history, 
and  ministers  whose  memory  is  precious,  —  Asbury, 
George,  Emory,  Waugh,  Robert  Strawbridge,  John 
Haggerty,  Wilson  Lee,  Hamilton,  Jefferson,  Henry 
Smith,  and  Oliver  Beale,  —  these  sleep  all  about  him. 
"  Yonder  lies  the  turnpike  he  rode  so  often,  in  med- 
itative mood.  There  lies  the  great  city  which  he 
helped  to  endow  with  that  Methodism  which  has 
been  so  potent  a  factor  in  its  life.  There,  across  the 
vales  and  wooded  hill-slope  of  a  lovely  landscape, 
gleam  the  blue  waters  of  the  Chesapeake,  and  beyond, 
the  dim,  distant  shores  of  the  county  where  his  soul 
escaped  to  God.  Above  his  dust  stands  a  marble 
tomb,  duly  inscribed,  and  not  far  away,  on  a  con- 
spicuous elevation,  rises  the  granite  shaft  which  you 
sent  some  years  ago,  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of 
Jesse  Lee.     It  bears  on  one  side  this  device  :  — 

Jesse  Lee, 

apostle  of  methodism 

to  new  england. 

and  on  the  other  side  :  — 

new  england  metftodism 

erects  this  tribute 

to  the  memory  op 

Rev.  Jesse  Lee, 

on  the  eighty-sixth  anniversary  of 

his  first  sermon  in  boston, 

preached  under  the  old  elm 

ON  THE  COMMON,   JULY  IIth,   1790. 

"  Thus,  brethren,  have  you  honored  the  memory  of 
him  who  was  the  Apostle  of  Christ  to  you,  the  angel 
of  your  churches. 


44  CENTENNIAL   OF 

"  As,  a  few  days  since,  I  made  a  pilgrimage  to  his 
tomb,  the  sombre  shadows  of  the  yew  trees  fell 
across  the  grass,  and  the  autumn  leaves,  melancholy 
monitors,  strewed  the  ground  ;  but  the  sun  shone  full 
upon  the  grave,  and  the  flowers  were  blooming  still, 
and  a  robin  whistled  in  the  crown  of  a  pine  tree  not 
far  away.  Even  Nature  spoke  with  voices  of  loftiest 
hope,  amid  the  graves  :  — 

"  '  Let  Summer  send  liev  golden  sunbeams  down 
In  graceful  salutations  for  the  dead ; 
And  Autumn's  moving  hosts  of  leaflets  brown 
Break  ranks  above  the  sleeping  soldier's  head.' 

"  From  the  grave  of  Jesse  Lee,  yours  and  ours,  I 
bring  you  the  greetings  of  Maryland  Methodism,  — 
the  salutation  of  admiration  for  your  history;  of 
amazement  at  the  work  God  has  wrought  by  you;  of 
brotherly  affection,  for  are  we  not  of  one  household, 
—  brothers,  as  men,  as  citizens  of  the  Great  Republic, 
as  Christians,  but  in  the  utmost  fellowship  as  Metho- 
dists ?  -  Are  not  your  hearts  as  our  hearts  ?  Then  we 
stretch  forth  our  hands  in  salutation,  praying  for  you 
in  the  words  of  your  civic  motto :  — 

"  '  Sicut  patribus,  sit  Deus  vobis.' 

"  May  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God,  the  God  of  our 
fathers,  the  covenant-keeping  God,  dwell  with  you 
evermore." 

Bishop  Foster  said :  "  We  will  have  the  notices, 
and  receive  the  benediction  after  the  Doxology,  in 
which  we  will  all  join.     Let  us  resolve,  as  a  Metho- 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  45 

dist  family  in  Boston,  to  make  this  celebration  a  great 
success.  Brother  Grandison,  who  was  to  address  you, 
has  been  called  away,  and  will  not  be  able  to  be  with 
iis." 

The  Doxology  was  sung,  and   the   session  closed 
with  the  benediction. 


THE  OLD  ELM. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Wednesday  Foeenoon. 

Ex-GovERNOK  William  Claflin  took  the  chair 
promptly,  and  said  :  "  We  will  commence  the  exer- 
cises by  singing  No.  5  on  the  slip,  which  was  the 
hymn  sung  by  Jesse  Lee  under  the  Old  Elm. 
Brother  Crawford  will  lead  the  singing." 

"  Come  humble  sinner  in  whose  breast." 

After  the  singing,  Ex-Gov.  Claflin  called  upon  Rev. 
Dr.  William  R.  Clark  to  lead  in  prayer. 

After  the  prayer,  Ex-Gov.  Claflin  said :  "  It  is  re- 
lated that  when  Jesse  Lee  came  to  Boston  he  found 
very  few  assistants,  but  there  was  one  man,  a  layman, 
who  brought  him  a  table  on  which  to  stand  to  deliver 
his  sermon.  The  conveniences  for  our  meetings  are 
somewhat  increased  in  these  days.  And  although 
the  Committee  of  Arrangements  have  taken  in  a  lay- 
man to  help  them,  there  was  but  little  need  of  it,  for 
we  have  magnificent  temples  erected  by  the  combined 
labors  of  ministers  and  laymen,  such  as  that  in  which 
you  are  called  to  assemble  to-day,  a  temple  worthy  of 
the  Methodism  of  New  England,  and  of  its  indepen- 
dent position. 

"  The  advent  of  Jesse  Lee  was  the  breaking  of  a  new 
event  upon  New  England.     This  is  so  often  spoken 

[47] 


48  CENTENNIAL   OF 

of  that  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  repeat  it.  But  we 
can  look  back,  perhaps,  for  a  few  minutes  upon  the 
condition  of  the  Commonwealth  at  the  time  he  came, 
one  hundred  years  ago.  The  nation  was  just  out 
from  a  sfreat  war.  The  State  was  in  the  hands,  we 
may  say,  as  far  as  its  religious  influence  was  concerned, 
of  one  denomination.  That  denomination  was  sup- 
ported by. a  general  tax.  Every  person  possessed  of 
property  in  the  State  had  to  contribute.  Every  man 
had  an  influence,  by  his  vote,  when  the  pastors  of  the 
the  people  were  hired.  For  a  long  period  the  people 
had  felt  the  burden.  The  effort  to  make  the  religion  of 
the  Commonwealth  of  one  character  was  carried  on 
for  a  hundred  years,  amidst  failures  on  the  right  hand 
and  the  left ;  and  this  failure  I  conceive  to  have  been 
from  the  attempt  to  bring  into  conformity  a  people 
who  had  fled  from  the  mother-country  because  there 
had  been  attempts  there  made  to  bring  conformity. 
But  as  an  independent,  spirited  people  was  too  great  to 
secure  that  in  the  ordinary  way,  the  whole  theological 
talent  and  influence  of  the  State  was  brought  to  con- 
vince them  that  that  was  the  proper  method,  that 
tliere  must  be  one  religion  supported  by  one  law. 
Out  of  this  came,  of  course,  the  persecutions  of  the 
Baptists,  the  Quakers,  and  various  other  denomina- 
tions that  came  in  from  time  to  time.  And  although 
conformity  to  a  certain  extent  had  been  reached,  yet 
the  people  were  uneasy.  Therefore  Jesse  Lee  came 
in  an  opportune  season.  The  people  received  him 
gladly,  —  the  common  people.  And  if  you  look  at  the 
result  in  four  or  five  years,  we  can  see  how  necessary 


-NJETW   ENGLAND    METHODISM.  49 

it  was  to  the  salvation  of  the  State,  tliat  this  man 
and  his  religion  of  Free  Grace  shonld  come  in  and 
mahe  a  part  of  the  religious  system  of  the  Common- 
wealth. 

"  Several  little  churches  were  gathered.  Soon  little 
chapels  were  erected  in  the  outskirts  of  almost  all 
the  towns.  But  it  took  many  years  to  erect  them  in 
the  central  portions.  Still  the  work  went  on.  Reli- 
gious thought  grew  more  free ;  but  it  took  nearly 
forty  years,  certainly  over  thirty,  to  repeal  the  obnox- 
ious laws  with  regard  to  the  support  of  worship  in 
this  Commonwealth,  when  Jesse  Lee  came  to  this 
city.  The  ground  was  hard,  it  is  true,  but  courage, 
faithfulness  and  prayer  prevailed.  And  perhaps,  at 
this  time,  there  is  no  community  so  tolerant  of  reli- 
gious thought  and  doctrine  as  the  one  in  whicli  we 
live.  Nowhere  is  there  such  absolute  freedom  from 
interruption  from  others  of  different  opinions,  who 
choose  to  promulgate  them. 

"  I  look  upon  this  as  in  a  great  measure  the  result  of 
Methodism.  From  her  came  this  idea  that  every  one 
should  have  the  right  to  speak  his  own  sentiments 
freely,  and,  as  Jefferson  said,  '  The  truth  will  pre- 
vail, if  it  is  left  free  to  combat  error.'  This  is  the 
experience,  it  seems  to  me,  of  the  people  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 

"  Now  I  do  not  care  to  look  very  much  on  the  past. 
It  is  often  spoken  of  in  our  gatherings.  I  believe 
that  the  present  is  the  best  day  that  Methodism  has 
ever  seen ;  and  it  is  to-day  the  highest  development 
of  Christianity  that  has  been  seen  in  the  world.     I 


50  CENTENNIAL   OF 

still  look  for  a  higher  and  better.  I  look  forward  to 
a  time  when  our  educational  institutions  shall  be  of 
the  highest  grade,  all  through  the  country,  that  we 
as  a  denomination  support.  I  believe  that  every 
member  of  the  body,  whether  male  or  female,  is  soon 
to  take  part  in  the  councils  of  the  body.  In  what 
form  that  will  come,  I  cannot  tell.  God  is  always 
bound  to  make  the  way  whenever  a  need  has  been 
found.  Surely  women,  as  those  of  the  early  Metho- 
dists, who  took  such  part  in  the  great  work  of 
planting  Methodism  on  this  continent,  should  have 
free  course  to  run  and  be  glorified  in  all  the  work  of 
the  Church.  It  may  not  be  best  to  place  them  in 
certain  parts  of  the  work.  They  will  do  as  they 
have  done  in  the  past  ;  wait  for  the  advances,  wait 
for  the  invitations  of  the  ministers  and  of  the  laymen. 
The  time  is  coming  when  they,  too,  in^very  part, 
will  press  their  influence,  and  it  will  be  accepted,  I 
believe,  as  a  Church.  But,  as  I  said  before,  that  will 
come  in  God's  good  time. 

"Now  I  will  ke^p  you  no  longer  from  those  set 
apart  for  this  hour.  I  know  you  are  waiting  to  hear 
them.  It  is  my  duty  to  invite  them  to  this  platform, 
and  I  believe  the  first  is  one  who  has  had  so  much  to 
do  with  this  church,  who  is,  you  may  say,  the  creator 
of  it,  who  has  given  himself  for  nine  years  to  its 
work,  whose  voice  has  been  heard  all  over  the  land 
with  acceptance  everywhere,  and  we  rejoice  to  wel- 
come him  this  day  most  cordially  to  this  platform, 
which  lias  been  so  often  his  place  of  invitation  to 
those  who  have  come  to  hear  him,  and  to  those  who 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  51 

have  come  to  worship  in  this  holy  tabernacle.  We 
will  be  glad  to  hear  from  Brother  Hamilton." 

Rev.  Dr.  J.  W.  Hamilton  said:  "Mr.  President, 
Sisters,  and  Brothers  :  The  eminently  fitting  and  elo- 
quent addresses  to  which  we  listened  last  night  have 
led  me  to  modify  somewhat  the  treatment  of  the 
theme  which  was  assigned  to  me  by  the  Committee  ;  — 
'  Jesse  Lee's  Mission  to  New  England.' 

"  Jesse  Lee  came  into  New  England  as  John 
Wesley  went  over  the  Old  England.  There  is  an 
unerring  genius  presiding  over  every  period  of  human 
history,  to  direct  in  the  affairs  of  men,  whose  office  it  is 
to  make  selection  of  certain  available  workmen  for 
certain  special  work.  By  such  genius  Jesse  Lee  was 
chosen  to  become  the  '  Apostle  of  Methodism  in 
New  England.'  Whereupon  he  was  not  disobedient 
to  the  heavenly  calling,  but  yielded  to  the  force  of 
the  imperative  duty.  He  could  not  do  otherwise. 
I  do  not  mean  that  he  was  fated  to  a  mission  through 
some  divine  decree. 

"  '  We  are  our  own  fates;  our  own  deeds 
Are  our  doomsmen.     Man's  life  was  made 
Not  for  men's  creeds, 
But  men's  actions.' 

Neither  do  I  know  that  God  had  no  method  or  part 
in  the  selection  of  Jesse  Lee  to  go  to  New  England. 
"  He  was  under  the  impulse  of  destiny.  The  late 
Cardinal  Newman,  when  a  young  man,  travelled 
with  Hurrell  Fronde  in  the  south  of  Europe.  During 
the  tour,  '  I  began,'  he  tells  us,  '  to  think  that  I  had 
a  mission.'     He  tarried  a  little  while  in   Rome,  and 


52  CENTENNIAL   OK 

when  there  he  wiis  asked  by  Moiisignor  Wiseman  to 
pay  a  second  visit.  He  replied,  with  great  gravity, 
'I  have  a  work  to  do  in  Enghmd.'  In  Sicily, 
after  an  illness,  he  sat  down  on  his  bed  and  began  to 
sob  violently.  '  My  servant,'  he  said,  in  referring  to 
the  matter,  'asked  what  ailed  me.  I  could  only 
answer  him,  I  have  a  work  to  do  in  England.' 

"  When  Jesse  Lee  was  a  young  man  he  travelled 
witli  Bisliop  Asbury,  in  the  Southern  States.  On  the 
way  to  Charleston,  S.C,  they  passed  through  a  place 
called  Charaws,  where  they  were  kindly  received  and 
entertained  by  a  merchant  of  that  place.  There  was 
in  the  employ  of  the  merchant  a  young  man  who  was 
a  native  of  Massachusetts.  Mr.  Lee,  in  a  conversa- 
tion with  him,  was  given  some  account  of  the 
religious  condition  and  customs  of  the  people  living 
in  his  native  State.  The  conversation  made  a  great 
im[)ression  upon  the  mind  of  the  itinerant  preacher, 
and  with  the  impression  came  the  conviction  that  he 
ought  to  go  and  preach  the  gospel,  as  he  had  received 
it,  to  that  distant  people. 

"  This  conviction,  according  to  the  earliest 
biography  of  Mr.  Lee,  was  not  merely  an  '  impulse  of 
the  moment,'  but  continued  from  that  time,  until  he 
was  enabled  to  realize  his  wishes.  He  frequently 
conversed  with  Mr.  Asbury  on  the  subject,  and 
expressed  his  ardent  wish  to  be  permitted  to  go  upon 
a  mission  among  the  people  of  the  New  England 
States.  But  Mr.  Asbury  at  that  time  thought  it  best 
to  progress  gradually  and  go  where  they  were 
invited ;    calculating,  probably,  that  it  was  best  to 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  53 

acquire  a  greater  number  of  preachers  before  tliey 
extended  their  hibors  so  far,  and  that  it  would  require 
the  exertions  of  more  than  one  to  give  a  permanent 
footing  in  those  territories.  Mr.  Lee,  after  this,  made 
very  zealous  exertions  in  order  to  enlist  preachers  to 
go  with  him  on  this  missionary  expedition  ;  but  was 
very  unsuccessful  for  several  years  in  gaining  recruits, 
and  it  was  not  until  nearly  five  years  had  ehapsed 
from  the  time  he  first  felt  an  impression  on  this  sub- 
ject that  his  wishes  were  realized. 

"Between  the  inspiration  of  Cardinal  Newman  and 
the  inspiration  of  Jesse  Lee  there  was  all  the  differ- 
ence that  exists  between  the  aspirations  of  modern 
Anglicanism,  or  Anglo-Roman  Catholicism,  and  the 
mission  of  Methodism.  Early  Methodism,  in  the 
comparative  studies  of  competent  critics,  has  been 
designated  already,  '  the  epic  poem  of  modern  Church 
History.'  If  there  may  be  those  who  will  question 
its  right  to  such  distinction,  what  must  they  say  of 
its  heroic  verse  ?  Where  may  we  look,  through  all 
ecclesiastical  poetry,  for  a  poem,  —  even  though  its 
meter  at  times  may  have  been  eccentric  —  of  more 
'  rythmic  thought '  ;  a  poem  of  loftier  sentiment, 
recordinof  bolder  and  more  adventuresome  heroism  ; 
a  poem  of  sublimer,  more  exalted  imagery  ?  I  mean, 
with  Emerson,  '  Only  that  is  poetry  which  cleanses 
and  mans  me.'  And  the  writer,  who  has  claimed 
early  Methodism  for  the  epic  poem,  doubtless  meant 
with  Plato,  that  '  Poetry  comes  nearer  the  vital  truth 
than  history.' 

"  Miss  Julia  Wedgewood,  who  was  not  a  Methodist, 


54  CENTENNIAL  OF 

in  a  well  written  '  Study  on  Wesley,'  says,  '  What 
then  was  the  central  fact  in  his  character?  It  was 
that  which  is  the  common  property  of  all  who  inspire 
new  force  into  the  religious  life  of  a  nation  :  it  was 
the  conviction  which,  when  barely  stated,  sounds  a 
truism,  that  God  governs  this  world,  and  not  only 
that  which  lies  beyond  the  grave.  Who  disputes  it, 
we  are  inclined  to  ask,  now?  The  reader  who  will 
peruse  these  pages  will  probably  confess  that  in  the 
eighteenth  century  it  was  disputed  by  all  who  filled 
the  chief  offices  of  the  Church  of  England.'  It  was 
the  mission  of  Methodism  to  preach  G-od  in  His 
world. 

"But,,  to  understand  more  fully  the  njission  of 
Jesse  Lee  to  New  England,  it  is  not  enough  simply 
to  know  that  he  was  a  Methodist  preacher.  We 
must  know,  more  particularly,  who  he  was,  and 
whence  he  came.  We  must  know  something  of  the 
field  to  which  he  was  called.  We  must  inquire  for 
the  nature  and  methods  of  the  Avork  he  was  impelled 
to  do.  'Nature  fits  all  her  children  with  something 
to  do ' ;  and  Nature,  supplemented  with  grace,  fits  all 
her  children  with  gifts  adequate  to  that  something 
which  is  to  be  done.  Jesse  Lee  possessed  large 
endowments  from  both  Nature  and  grace.  He  was 
distinguislied  for  his  mother  wit  and  liis  great  heart. 
The  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table  says, '  Whatever 
comes  from  the  brain  carries  the  hue  of  the  place  it 
came  from,  and  whatever  comes  from  the  heart 
carries  the  heat  and  color  of  its  birth-])lace.' 

"  The  Apostle  of   New    England   Methodism   was 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  65 

born  in  Virginia,  and  Virginia  is  a  good  place  for  a 
great  heart  to  be  born.  He  was  born  in  Prince 
George  County,  March  12,  1753.  He  was  the  second 
son  of  Nathaniel  and  Elizabeth  Lee,  whose  forefathers 
came  over  from  England  soon  after  the  first  settlement 
of  Virginia.  His  parents  were  members  of  the  English 
Episcopal  Church,  and  they  dedicated  their  children 
to  God  according  to  the  rites  of  the  Church.  Jesse 
Lee  has  given  the  following  account  of  his  own  char- 
acter during  his  boyhood,  in  his  Journal :  '  I  do  not 
recollect  that  I  ever  swore  in  my  life,  except  one 
night,  being  in  company  with  some  wicked  young 
people,  I  uttered  some  kind  of  oaths  for  which  I  felt 
ashamed  and  sorry  all  the  next  day,  and  when  alone 
I  felt  tliat  God  was  displeased  with  me  for  my  bad 
conduct.  I  believe  T  never  did  anything  in  my  youth 
that  the  people  generally  called  wicked.  I  used, 
however,  to  indulge  bad  tempers  and  use  some  vain 
words.' 

"  He  also  gives  a  very  definite  account  of  his  con- 
version and  Christian  experience.  '  One  of  my 
mother's  relations,'  he  says,  '  came  to  my  father's  and 
stayed  all  night.  The  topic  of  conversation  was 
experimental  religion.  While  engaged  in  this  inter- 
esting subject,  my  father  observed  that  '  if  a  man's 
sins  were  forgiven  him,  he  would  know  it '  ;  this  took 
hold  of  my  mind,  and  I  pondered  it  in  my  heart. 
The  next  day,  when  alone  in  the  field,  it  kept  run- 
ning across  my  mind,  '  if  a  man's  sins  are  forgiven, 
he  will  know  it.'  I  thought  it  over  and  over  again, 
and  concluded  it  must  be  so,  for  my  father  said  so, 


56  CENTENNIAL   OF 

and  I  believed  it.  At  length  I  began  to  reason  with 
myself  thus  :  '  Are  my  sins  forgiven  ?  I  liope  so,  but 
do  I  know  it  ?  No  !  no  !  I  have  no  assurance  of  it.' 
Immediately  it  was  impressed  upon  my  mind  with 
uncommon  force,  '  Go  and  pray.'  The  impression 
was  repeated,  and  I  went  off  into  a  large  branch, 
which  was  surrounded  with  thick  bushes;  then  I 
stopped  and  looked  to  see  if  any  person  was  near  me, 
but  could  see  no  one  ;  yet  I  thought  some  one  might 
pass  that  way  and  see  me,  so  I  set  off  to  another 
place,  where  the  bushes  appeared  to  be  yet  thicker, 
but  when  I  came  there  I  was  afraid  of  being  seen  ;  1 
then  went  to  another  place  with  the  same  reasonings 
and  the  same  fears,  but  at  length  I  ventured  to  kneel 
down,  and  began  to  pray  that  the  Lord  would  forgive 
my  sins.  My  distress  of  soul  at  that  time  was  very 
great,  and  never  wore  off  till  my  sins  were  forgiven. 
I  read  that  some  asked  and  received  not,  because  they 
asked  amiss.  The  remembrance  of  this  made  me,  for 
a  season,  afraid  to  use  many  words  in  prayer,  for  fear 
I  should  pray  improperly  and  therefore  '  ask  amiss.' 
One  morning,  being  in  deep  distress,  I  was  constrained 
to  cry  in  earnest  for  mercy,  and  the  Lord  came  to 
my  relief  and  delivered  my  soul  from  the  burden 
and  guilt  of  sin. 

" '  My  whole  frame  was  in  a  tremor  from  head  to 
foot,  and  my  soul  enjoyed  sweet  peace.  The  pleas- 
ure I  then  felt  was  indescribable.  One  evening, 
travelling  in  company  with  a  religious  neighbor,  he 
asked  me  if  I  was  ever  converted?  I  told  him  I 
believed   I   had  been.      He   then   asked  me  several 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  57 

questions  relative  to  the  circumstances  of  the  change, 
which  I  endeavored  to  answer.  He  then  said,  '  You 
are  surely  converted.'  I  was  much  strengthened  by 
that  conversation,  and  so  much  encouraged  as  to  tell 
other  people  when  they  asked  me  what  the  Lord  had 
done  for  my  soul.' 

"  Minton  Thrift,  in  his  '  Memoir  of  the  Rev.  Jesse 
Lee,'  says,  '  Soon  after  this  he  enjoyed  such  a  inani- 
festation  of  the  presence  and  power  of  God,  as 
completely  to  remove  all  his  doubts  and  enable  him 
to  say,  '  Now  I  know  whom  I  believe.'  This  blessed 
assurance  he  obtained  by  fervently  besieging  the 
throne  of  grace ;  he  proved  successful  and  was 
abundantly  blessed.'  About  two  years  from  this 
time  he  was  present  at  a  quarterly  meeting,  where  he 
discovered,  as  his  biographer  relates,  '  that  the  blood 
of  Christ  could  indeed  cleanse  from  all  sin.'  '  I  went 
home,'  said  Mr.  Lee,  in  writing  of  himself,  '  with  a 
fixed  determination  to  seek  for  a  deeper  work  of 
grace,  and  to  hope  and  pray  and  wait  for  that  perfect 
love  which  casteth  out  all  fear.  I  did  firmly  believe 
that  the  Lord  was  both  able  and  willino-  to  save  to 
the  utmost  all  that  would  come  to  Him.  I  felt  a 
sweet  distress  in  my  soul  for  holiness  of  heart  and 
life.  I  sensibly  felt  that,  while  I  was  seeking  for 
purity  of  heart,  I  grew  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge 
of  God.  This  concern  of  soul  lasted  for  some  time, 
till  at  length  I  could  say,  '  I  have  nothing  bnt  the 
love  of  Christ  in  my  heart.'  I  was  assured  that  my 
soul  was  continually  happy  in  God.  The  world  with 
all  its  charms  is  crucified  to  me  and  I  am  crucified  to 
the  world.' 


58  CENTENNIAI.  OF 

"  It  was  no  morbid  sentiment  which  possessed  him, 
and  there  was  no  tendency  in  him  to  withdraw  him- 
self toward  anything  ascetic.     He  simply  grew  bold 
in  faith  and  venturesome  in  love.     He  was  excessively 
timid,  and  did  not  believe,  at  this  time,  that  it  was  his 
duty  to  preach.     He  simply  said,  'I  want  to  do  all 
the  good  I  can.'     But  from  class  leader  to  exhorter, 
and  from  exhorter  to  local  preacher,  he  was  led  on, 
only,  however,  as  the  Church  called  him.     His  final 
decision  trembled  on  account  of  much  waiting,  and 
was  reached  after  long  suspense.     He  would  not  '  run 
before  he  was  sent.'     In  accepting  his  first  appoint- 
ment from  the  Conference,  he  said,  '  I  trembled  at  the 
thoujrlit  of  the  station  I  was  to  fill.'     But  once  his 
decision  was  given,  his  continued  and  increasing  suc- 
cess confirmed  the  wisdom  of  the  Church,  and  his  own 
conviction  of  his  call  to  the  itinerant  ministry.     The 
notes  in  his  Journal  reveal  much  of  his  character,  as 
well  as  something  of  the  nature  of  his  ministry.     On 
one  occasion  he  writes,  '  The  power  and  presence  of 
the  Lord  was  among  us,  and  many  cried  alond.     I 
was  so  deeply  affected  that  I  could  not  speak  till  I 
had  stopped  and  wept  for  some  time.'     At  another 
time,  he  has  written,  'My  soul  was  much  comforted 
in  pleaching  to  a  people  who  had  but  little  religion, 
and  it  was  a  solemn,  profitable  time  to  the  hearers.' 
Very  early  in  his  ministry,  after  joining  the  Confer- 
ence, he  wrote  the  following  concerning  a  Sunday  at 
a  quarterly   meeting :  '  It   was   indeed  a  day  of  the 
Lord's  power,  and  many  sonls  were  comforted.     One 
young  man   was   awakened  by  the  sermon   which  I 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  59 

preached,  who  afterwards  became  a  travelling 
preacher.' 

"  An  all-controlling  zeal  seems  to  have  directed  the 
youthful  preacher  in  every  sermon.  It  is  now  clearly 
evident  that  lie  was  in  preparation  for  the  difficult 
work  before  him,  for  liis  call  to  New  England  never 
deserted  him.  There  was  alwa3'-s  a  settled  purpose  to 
go  sometime  to  the  people  in  the  Eastern  States.  But 
he  was  moved  by  the  same  inspiring  impulse  which 
pushed  him  on  to  preach  and  organize  elsewhere.  It 
could  never  be  charged  against  him  that  'the  thirst  of 
power,  the  fever  of  ambition'  influenced  him,  either 
in  the  Eastern  or  in  the  Southern  States. 

''  Mr.  Lee  came  to  New  England  from  the  Confer- 
ence held  in  New  York,  in  1789.  He  was  then  thirty- 
one  years  old.  He  was  commanding  in  his  personal 
appearance,  '  of  a  stout,  athletic  frame,  and  weighed 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  ;  liis  skin  fair,  his 
eyes  gray,  and  his  face  full  and  broad ;  his  step  was 
quick  and  firm  and  he  was  quite  active  for  one  of  his 
ponderous  weight.'  The  noted  Dan  Young,  who  was 
raised  on  the  Ammonoosuck  river,  in  New  Hampshire, 
says :  '  I  was  standing  in  my  father's  door  one  day, 
when  about  fifteen  years  of  age,  and  saw  a  robust  look- 
ing man  riding  a  horse,  with  another  following  behind. 
That  person  was  Jesse  Lee,  and  being  a  heavy  man, 
and  his  rides  long,  it  was  necessary  that  he  should 
have  two  horses  to  perform  the  labor  of  carrying  him.' 

"He  was  a  man  of  indomitable  courage  and  daring. 
At  one  time,  he  got  out  of  his  bed,  with  a  high  fever, 
to  meet  an  appointment,  and  to  form  a  new  class.     At 


60  CENTENNIAL  OF 

other  times  he  rode  through  the  rain  while  it  fell  in 
torrents,  to  meet  his  congregations,  or  at  least  to  be 
present  at  the  place  where  he  had  appointed  to  meet 
them.  Once  he  crossed  the  Yadkin  river  when  it  was 
much  swollen  from  the  frequent  rains,  was  very  deep, 
and  the  current  strong.  Not  being  well  acquainted 
with  the  ford,  he  lost  his  way  and  found  himself 
among  cragged  rocks,  which  were  concealed  from  his 
view  by  the  darkness  of  the  waters.  One  moment 
his  horse  was  swimming,  the  next  plunging  over  the 
points  of  rugged  rocks,  only  to  be  swept  on  by  the 
rushing,  warring  river.  Himself  encumbered  with  a 
great  coat,  and  with  his  saddlebags  on  his  arm,  and 
being  but  an  indifferent  swimmer,  he  scarcely  hoped  for 
deliverance.  But,  brought  through  unhurt,  he  went 
his  way,  and  on  through  other  perils,  ascribing  his 
escape  to  the  good  providence  of  God. 

"  But  it  was  his  extemporaneous  speech,  sympa- 
thetic, musical  voice,  and  earnest,  inspiring  manner, 
which  gathered  the  crowds  of  common  people  to  hear 
him  in  the  streets  and  lanes  and  open  fields,  and  led 
men  to  say  that  such  a  man  had  not  visited  New  Eng- 
land since  the  days  of  Whitefield.  If,  in  eloquence, 
the  great  triumphs  of  the  art  are  when  the  orator  is 
lifted  above  himself,  when  consciously  he  makes  him- 
self the  mere  tongue  of  the  occasion  and  the  hour,  and 
says  '  what  cannot  but  be  said,'  then  Jesse  Lee  was  a 
most  eloquent  preacher.  '  When  Mr.  Lee  commences 
his  sermon,'  said  one  who  frequently  heard  him,  '  it 
always  reminds  me  of  the  hoisting  of  the  flood  gates 
of   a  mill.     There    is   one   incessant  pouring  of  the 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  61 

sweetest  eloquence  I  ever  heard/  The  Rev.  Thomas 
Ware  said,  '  He  preached  with  more  ease  than  any 
other  man  I  ever  knew,  and  was,  I  think,  the  best 
every-day  preacher  in  the  connection.'  But  the  truest 
test  of  his  power  is  given  by  one  avIio  said,  after  liear- 
ing  him  the  second  time  in  Boston, '  I  thought  I  could 
follow  him  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.' 

"What  he  came  to  do  is  best  known  from  what  he 
succeeded  in  doing.  New  England  liad  fostered  the 
doctrine  that  all  things  were  subject  to  divine  de- 
cree, and  liad  given  supremacy  to  a  single  Church, 
until  the  people  were  beginning  to  doubt  the  one  and 
resist  the  claims  of  the  other.  If,  as  some  one  has 
said,  '  Reason  and  authority  are  the  two  brightest 
lights  in  the  world,'  to  set  the  one  against  the  other  is 
to  put  both  lights  out.  This  the  New  England  colo- 
nies had  done.  Unbelief  and  disbelief  were  fast 
undermining  the  Churches,  and  the  support  of  the 
clergy  by  taxation  was  bringing  into  the  pulj^it  an 
unconverted  ministry. 

"  The  time  had  come  for  a  Methodist  preacher  to 
come  to  New  England,  and  Jesse  Lee  came.  '  Great 
men,'  said  Bishop  Simpson,  '  are  indeed  generally  the 
birth  of  great  times.'  The  elements  required  to  meet 
the  peculiar  times  were  all  found  in  the  new  Apostle. 
The  strong  right  arm  of  the  ponderous  preacher  was 
thought  to  be  no  mean  weapon  for  his  defence.  His 
remarkable  ability  to  sing,  his  irresistible  wit,  and 
his  excellent  spirit,  gave  him  at  once  a  circle  of 
human  influence  commensurate  to  his  work.  He  was 
equal  to  the  task  he  had  set  himself  to  perform  from 


62  CENTENNIAL  OF 

the  very  first  day  he  entered  the  "  walled  country,'  as 
New  England  was  called  last  night.  Jesse  Lee  was 
sure  of  his  monument,  though  it  took  a  hundred 
3ears  to  win  it.  That  first  sermon  in  Norwalk,  Conn., 
on  June  17, 1789,  was  the  beginning  of  the  end.  What 
did  it  matter  if  one  Mr.  Rogers  was  not  willing  that 
he  should  preach  in  his  house  ?  What  did  it  matter 
if  Mrs.  Rogers  was  not  willing  that  he  should  speak 
in  an  old  house  that  stood  just  by  ?  What  did  it  matter 
if  an  old  lady  would  not  consent  to  his  speaking  in 
her  orchard,  lest  the  people  should  tread  the  grass 
down  ?  Mr.  Lee  simply  went  into  the  road,  and  gave 
notice  to  some  of  the  people  that  he  would  preach 
there.  They  soon  began  to  collect  where  they  found 
an  apple  tree  to  shade  them,  and  Mr.  Lee  said,  '  I  felt 
happy  that  we  were  favored  with  so  comfortable  a 
place.'  Methodism  always  goes  to  the  highway,  when 
there  is  nowhere  else  to  go.  If  the  people  were  to 
take  up  the  road,  the  Methodist  preachers  would 
simply  la}'  down  another.  The  last  place  has  never 
yet  been  found,  where  the  truth  may  not  go  to  be 
preached.  This  new  preacher  was  more  than  a  match 
for  all  his  opponciits,  and  he  possessed  both  the 
power  and  tact  to  put  aside  obstacles.  When  he  had 
gone  on  from  Norwalk  to  Fairfield,  and  put  up  at 
the  tavern,  the  woman  of  the  house  wished  to  know 
if  he  had  a  liberal  education.  '  I  told  her,'  said  the 
preacher,  '  I  had  just  education  enough  to  cany  me 
through  the  countr}'.'  That  was  sufficient  and  satis- 
factory. After  he  had  preached  and  Mrs.  Penlield, 
the  woman  who  was  interested  in  liis  education,  had 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  63 

come  back  to  the  tavern,  she  pressed  him  to  preach  at 
the  home  of  her  sister,  who,  she  said,  was  much 
engaged  in  religion,  and  woukl  be  much  pleased  with 
his  manner  of  preaching.     Certainly  she  would  be ! 

"  The  kind  of  opposition  which  met  the  Methodist 
preacher  in  New  England,  was  sure  to  bring  him 
more  friends  tlian  foes,  and,  sooner  or  later,  to  get 
for  him  the  field.  In  writing  of  a  large  congregation 
which  had  come  to  hear  him  near  Boston,  Mr.  Lee 
says,  '  I  suppose  tlie  reason  wliy  I  had  so  many  to 
hear  me  was  owing  to  their  ministers  preaching 
against  me  two  Sabbaths  in  succession.  The  people 
heard  me  with  great  attention  and  many  tears  were 
shed.  I  ]iad  reason  to  praise  God  that  I  felt  my  soul 
happy  in  his  love.  I  generally  find  I  am  in  this 
state  when  I  am  most  opposed ;  then  I  have  the  most 
hearers.  The  Lord  seems  to  bring  good  out  of  evil. 
If  my  sufferings  will  tend  to  the  furtherance  of  the 
gospel,  I  think  I  feel  willing  to  suffer,  but  if  I  had 
no  confidence  in  God,  and  as  many  to  oppose  me,  I 
believe  I  should  soon  leave  these  parts.'  At  another 
time  he  writes  :  '  Poor  priests  !  they  seem  like  fright- 
ened sheep  when  I  come  near  them.  There  are 
about  forty-five  of  them  in  the  bounds  of  my  two 
weeks'  circuit,  and  the  general  cry  is,  '  the  Societies 
will  be  broken  up.' 

"  He  gives  the  following  account  of  an  occasion  for 
much  of  the  opposition  :  '  I  spoke  freely  and  fully 
against  unconditional  election  and  reprol)ation,  and  I 
found  great  liberty  in  speaking,  and  the  power  of 
God  attended  the  word.     Many  of  the  people  wept 


64  CENTENNIAL   OF 

greatly,  and  some  cried  out  aloud.  I  really  expected 
that  the  Lord  would  make  bare  his  arm  in  the  con- 
viction of  some  soul  at  that  meeting.  I  told  them  at 
last  that  God  had  taken  his  oath  against  Calvinism, 
because  he  liad  declared  by  the  mouth  of  his  holy 
prophet,  'As  I  live  saith  the  Lord  God,  I  have  no 
pleasure  in  the  death  of  the  wicked,  but  that  the 
wicked  turn  from  his  way  and  live.'  On  uttering 
these  words,  I  felt  so  much  of  the  power  of  God,  tliat 
it  appeared  to  me  as  if  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  was 
sealed  to  the  hearts  of  the  hearers.  IVIany  of  those 
who  were  careless  in  the  beginning,  were  forced  to 
weep,  and  both  men  and  women  in  the  congregation 
could  not  conceal  their  tears  before  we  were  done.' 

"The  deliverance  of  the  people  from  the  horrible 
decrees  uttered  by  John  Calvin,  and  taught  in  New 
England,  will  be  better  understood  if  Mr.  Lee's  state- 
ment of  the  substance  of  doctrine,  as  he  met  it  in 
every  part,  is  given.  He  says,  '  The  doctrine  which 
so  generally  prevails  is,  '  The  sinner  must  repent 
and  he  can't  repent :  and  he  will  go  to  hell  if  he  don't 
repent ' :  or,  as  a  lawyer  expressed  it  in  my  hearing, 
'you  must  believe  or  be  damned:  and  you  can't 
believe  if  you  are  to  be  damned."  Wlien  the  doc- 
trine of  infant  damnation  was  added  to  this  confession 
of  faith,  who  will  marvel  over  the  emotional  sensa- 
tions awakened  by  the  preaching  of  the  new  gospel? 
It  is  now  almost  forgotten  that  the  following  passage 
occurs  in  the  works  of  Calvin :  '  What  other  than  the 
good  pleasure  of  God  is  the  cause  why  the  fall  of 
Adam  involved  in  eternal  and  remediless  deatli  Avhole 


NEW    ENGLAND   JMETHODISM.  65 

nations  with  their  infant  offspring?'  In  the  face  of 
such  utterances,  can  we  wonder  that  Mr.  Lee  shoukl 
say,  even  when  he  preached  in  a  borrowed  meeting- 
house, 'I  did  not  give  tliem  velvet-mouth  preaching, 
though  I  had  a  large  velvet  cushion  under  my  liands  '? 
"The  teaching  of  such  doctrines  led  Mr.  Lee  to  feel 
that  the  Five  Points  of  Calvinism,  like  their  counter- 
part at  the  Five  Points  in  New  York,  did  not  entitle 
them  to  any  rights  of  primogeniture,  or  even  other 
hereditary  claim.  He  regarded  them  as  only 
*  tenants  at  will,'  whose  ejection  was  for  the  good  of 
the  property  and  the  interest  of  the  owners.  And  it 
is  possible  that  Mr.  Lee  did  not  regard  as  binding 
on  the  consciences  of  the  people  the  plan  by  which 
'  townsliips  were  incorporated  with  a  view  to  the 
ability  to  maintain  a  settled  ministry,  and  to  the 
convenience  of  the  people  in  attending  public 
worship.'  It  would  not  be  probable  that  he  or  any 
other  Methodist  preacher  would  recognize  such  right 
of  'squatter  sovereignty,'  when  the  people  were  com- 
pelled to  accept  such  fearful  teaching  from  the 
pulpit  of  the  '  standing  order.'  Quite  to  the 
contrary,  Mr.  Lee  went  through  these  little  '  gardens 
of  the  Lord  '  much  as  he  went  into  the  highways,  to 
the  market  places,  and  to  the  Common  —  he  went  by 
a  sort  of  '  right  of  eminent  domain.'  He  appealed  to 
the  Bible,  but  not  to  the  Bible  only.  Every  sense  of 
justice  and  obligation  was  called  to  his  support,  and 
to  the  emancipation  of  the  people.  It  was,  therefore, 
not  long  until  the  thinking  of  the  people  was  aroused, 
and  the  churches  had  begun  to  fit  themselves  to  their 


66  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Spheres.  The  hiws  taxhig  all  persons  for  the 
support  of  the  nihiistry  were  first  ameliorated  by 
allowing  persons  to  contribute  to  whatever  Chureli 
they  might  prefer :  and  the  whole  system  of  compul- 
sory taxation  was  abolished,  though  not  in 
Connecticut  until  1816,  and  not  in  Massachusett.i 
until  1833. 

"  Had  it  been  possible  to  resist  the  force  of 
influence  voiced  by  a  single  preacher,  or  the  number 
of  preachers  who  soon  joined  him,  there  was  no 
power  ou  the  earth  or  under  the  earth  which  could 
stem  the  current  of  singing  that  rolled  forth  like  the 
distant  music  of  the  spheres,  from  the  multitudes 
who  came  and  went,  over  hill  and  vale,  in  going  to 
and  returning  from  the  Methodist  meetings.  And 
the  hymns  which  the  people  were  taught  to  sing 
embodied  Avhole  systems  of  doctrine,  which  were 
destined  to  overturn  the  prevalent  creeds  of  the 
established  Churches.  Take  the  single  hymn  which 
is  reputed  to  be  one  of  the  hymns  that  Jesse  Lee  sang 
under  the  Old  Elm,  on  Boston  Common  :  — 

"  '  Blow  ye  the  trumpet,  blow, 

The  j^ladly  solemn  sound. 
Let  all  the  nations  know. 

To  earth's  remotest  bound, 
The  year  of  jubilee  is  come, 
lleturn,  ye  ransomed  sinneis  home. 

'  Jesus,  our  great  High  Priest, 

Hath  full  atonement  made: 
Ye  weary  spirits,  rest; 

Ye  mournful  souls,  be  glad: 
The  year  of  jubilee  is  come. 

Return,  ye  ransomed  sinners,  home.' 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODlSiM.  67 

"I  may  repeat  the  whole  hymn,  for  it  is  a  veritable 
library  of  religious  knowledge. 

"  '  Extol  the  Lamb  of  God, 

The  all-atoning  Lamb; 
Redemption  in  his  blood 

Thi-oughout  the  world  proclaim: 
The  year  of  jubilee  is  come, 
Return,  ye  ransomed  sinners,  home. 

*  Ye  slaves  of  sin  and  hell, 

Your  liberty  receive. 
And  safe  in  Jesus  dwell, 

And  blest  in  Jesus  live: 
The  year  of  jubilee  is  come. 
Return,  ye  ransomed  sinners,  home. 

"The  next  verse  was  a  liberal  education  to  one 
trained  to  believe  only  the  decrees  : 

"  '  Ye  who  have  sold  for  naught 

Your  heritage  above, 
Shall  have  it  back  unbought, 

The  gift  of  Jesus '  love: 
The  year  of  jubilee  is  come. 
Return,  ye  ransomed  sinners,  home. 

'  The  gospel  trumpet  hear. 

The  news  of  heavenly  grace; 
And,  saved  from  earth,  appear 

Before  your  Saviour's  face: 
The  year  of  jubilee  is  come. 
Return,  ye  ransomed  sinners  home.' 

"  Jesse  Lee  was  only  a  gospel  evangelist,  and  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  in  the  beginning,  was 
only  a  revival  of  religion.  But  the  story  of  these 
1,074   New    England   churches,  136,807   New   Eng- 


68  CENTENNIAL  OF 

land  preachers,  138,595  Sunday  School  scholars, 
$10,488,036  of  Church  pi'operty,  and  the  prevalence 
now  of  Methodist  doctrine  and  Methodist  piety 
everywhere  in  all  the  Churclies,  have  taught  us  a 
lesson  during  the  century  of  New  England  Metho- 
dism, which  every  people  well  may  heed,  for  '  the 
practical  effect  of  a  belief  is  the  real  test  of  its 
soundness.' 

"  When  the  bronze  castings  were  being  completed 
for  the  statue  of  Liberty,  on  the  Capitol  at  Washing- 
ton, at  the  foundry  of  Mr.  Mills,  near  Bladensburg 
his  foreman,  who  had  superintended  the  work  from 
the  beginning,  and  who  was  receiving  eight  dollars 
per  day,  struck,  and  demanded  ten  dollars,  assuring 
Mr.  Mills  that  the  advance  must  be  granted  liim,  as 
nobody  in  America,  except  himself,  could  complete 
the   work.     Mr.    Mills    felt   that    the    demand    was 
exorbitant,  and  appealed,  in  his  dilemma,  to  the  slaves 
who  were  assisting  in  the  moulding.     '  I  can  do  that 
well,'  said  one  of  them,  an  intelligent  and  ingenious 
servant,  who   had   been    intimately    engaged    in    the 
various   processes.     The   striker  was   dismissed,  and 
the  negro,  assisted  occasionally  by  the  fine  skill  of  his 
master,  took  the  striker's  place  as  superintendent,  and 
the  work  went  on.     The  black  master-builder  lifted  the 
ponderous,     uncouth      masses,     and      bolted      them 
together,   joint    to    joint,    piece    by   piece,    till    they 
blended  into  the  majestic  '  Freedom,'  who  to-day  lifts 
her  head  in  the  blue  clouds  above  Washington,  invok- 
ing a  benediction  uj)on  the  imperilled  republic.     Let 
itbe  remembered  that  the  Great  Master-Builder,  who 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  69 

presides  in  the  council  of  churches  as  of  nations,  is 
building  out  of  our  diverse  civilization  a  great  people, 
whose  chief  glory  shall  be  in  doing  His  will.  He  is 
no  respector  of  persons,  and  will  only  take  account 
of  work  done.  Shall  it  be  that  the  weak  among  us, 
the  despised  and  rejected,  shall  come  to  honor,  and 
the  high  and  lifted  up  shall  be  cast  down  ? 

'  Let  no  man  take  thy  crown.'  " 

At  the  close  of  Dr.  Hamilton's  address,  Ex-Gov. 
Claflin  said  :  "  The  congregation  is  requested  to  arise 
and  sing  the  third  Hymn,  three  stanzas  :  — 

"  *  Blow  ye  the  trumpet,  blow, 
The  gladly  solemn  sonnd.'  " 

After  the  singing.  Gov.  Claflin  said  :  "  The  glory  of 
Methodism  is  that  it  should  seek  to  give  knowledge 
to  the  people.  One  of  the  first  things  that  Mr. 
Wesley  did  was  to  plant  institutions  of  learning  ; 
and  it  has  been  the  glory  of  Massachusetts  Metho- 
dism —  New  England  Methodism  —  to  establish 
institutions  of  learning  in  our  midst;  and  the 
feeling  that  was  present  with  us  has  been  carried  by 
the  sons  of  New  England  to  the  West,  and  all  over 
that  co-untry  institutions  of  learning  have  been 
planted  most  successfully,  giving  instructors  to  the 
people,  and  sending  preachers  and  missionaries 
throughout  the  world.  Among  those  who  have  been 
instrumental  in  this  great  work  is  one  who  has  been 
with  us  and  is  with  us  to-day,  although  after  many 
years  of  service,  vigorous  and  hearty.     It  gives  me 


70  CENTENNIAL  OF 

great  pleasure  to  present  to  you  Dr.  Twombly,  who 
will  speak  upon  the  '  Comparative  Growth  of  New 
England  Methodism.'  " 

Dr.  Twombly  said :  "  Mr.  President,  Ladies  and 
Gentlemen  :  I  want  your  help  a  little  wliile  on  the 
driest  part  of  tlie  whole  business.  I  want  you  to 
help  me  with  your  pencil  and  brusli,  if  you  have  a 
chance  to  use  them,  but  especially  with  your  vig- 
orous imaginations,  to  paint  one  or  two  pictures. 
Please  put  the  canvas  up  there  (pointing  to  the  rear 
wall),  ten  feet  from  top  to  bottom,  eight  feet  from 
side  to  side,  and  on  that  placing  in  the  left  corner 
Connecticut,  and  east  of  it  Rhode  Island  ;  and  above 
these  Massachusetts,  and  on  these  as  a  pedestal  place 
Vermont  and  New  Hampshire,  and  to  the  right  of 
New  Hamphire  the   great    Pine    Tree    State,  Maine. 

"  That  is  New  England  in  1790,  as  large  then  as 
now,  with  the  same  hills  and  valleys  and  streams 
as  now,  a  million  and  nine  thousand  inhabitants, 
scattered  along  the  sea-coast  of  Maine,  in  the  soutli- 
ern  parts  of  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont,  from 
Massachusetts  Bay  to  the  Berkshire  Hills,  and  quite 
largely  througli  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island. 
Your  vigorous  imaginations  will  put  all  this  and  a 
great  deal  more  on  the  canvas.  In  fact,  I  want  you 
to  supply,  by  your  lively  imaginations,  all  the 
appropriate  things  that  I  omit.  Please  glance  a 
moment  at  the  religious  bodies  of  that  day. 

"  You  may  accept,  as  substantially  correct,  the  fol- 
lowing statements  :  There  were  seven  liundred  and 
twenty-five  Congregational  churches,  quite  thick  in 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  71 

Connecticut,  quite  thick  in  Massachusetts,  scattered 
over  Rhode  Island,  Vermont,  and  Maine,  with  a  mem- 
bership of  sixtj-five  or  seventy  thousand  souls. 
Everything  was  in  their  hands,  everything  had  Leen 
moulded  by  them,  a  great  and  honorable  people. 
The  next  denomination  in  order  was  the  Baptist, 
having  two  hundred  and  sixty-six  churches  and  17,174 
members.  The  Free  Baptists  had  eighteen  churches 
and  four  hundred  members.  The  Presbyterians,  after 
a  struggle  of  a  century  and  a  quarter,  were  beginning 
to  breathe  freely  and  hopefully.  They  had  about 
seventy  churches,  but  at  this  date  they  listened  to 
the  dulcet  notes  of  union  ;  they  walked  with  the 
Congregationalists  and  they  were  not,  for  the  Congre- 
gationalists  took  them.  The  Episcopalians  had 
perhaps  twenty  or  twenty-five  churches,  and  twenty- 
five  hundred  communicants.  The  exact  numbers  I 
cannot  ascertain.  No  man  can  give  positive  informa- 
tion. The  Quakers  were  about  as  numerous.  The 
Universalists  had  six  churches.  The  Unitarians  had 
no  church  by  that  name;  but,  in  1783,  under  the 
direction  of  the  Rev.  James  Freeman,  the  society 
worshipping  in  King's  Chapel  decided  to  drop  out  of 
the  ritual  all  that  related  to  the  Trinity  and  the 
atonement  of  Jesus,  so  they  put  themselves  on  Uni- 
tarian ground  without  taking  the  name.  The  society 
has  stood  on  that  ground  ever  since. 

"  Tlie  Roman  Catholics  established  a  mission  on 
Neutral  Island,  in  Scodiac  River,  in  Maine,  in  1609, 
and  in  1612  a  mission  on  Mount  Desert  Island,  in 
Maine,    where   they   built  a  chapel.     In    1646    they 


7^  CENTENNIAL   OF 

o})ened  mission  chapels  on  the  Upper  Kennebec.     In 

1798  they  opened  a  clnirch  in  Newport,  R.I.,  and  one 

on    School   Street,  Boston,  in  1790,  the  year  of  Lee's 

arrival.     Nine  years  later  they  erected  the  cathedral 

on  Franklin  Street,   where  now  stands  the    massive 

granite    block,  bearing    the   initials,    I.    R.,  —  Isaac 

Rich. 

Table  I.,  Showing  the  Items  Given. 

Churches.  Members. 

Congregational 72.5  6.5,000  or  70,000 

Baptist 266  17,174 

Free  Baptist 18  400 

Protestant  Episcopalian 20  2,.50O 

Presbyterian 70  3,000 

Quakers 20  3,000 

Universalist 6  . 

Unitarian 1 

Koman  Catholic 7 

Total 1,133  96,074 

"  With  more  than  1,100  churches,  and  nearly 
100,000  church  members,  the  self-conscious,  not  to  say 
self-conceited,  people  of  New  England  felt  no  need  of 
a  new  ism  and  a  new  church  polity,  for  they  were 
equal  to  all  emergencies.  Had  not  their  fathers 
crossed  the  ocean  in  the  Mayflower?  Had  not  they 
themselves  made  the  greatest  tea-party  of  the  centu- 
ries, and  throttled  the  British  Lion  on  Bunker  Hill? 

"Nevertheless,  the  watchman  in  the  tower,  turning 
his  spy-glass  to  the  west,  descries  a  dust-cloud.  He 
gazes  intently,  and  lo  !  a  solitary  horseman,  unbidden 
and  unwelcome,  trots  along  the  highway  of  the  'land 
of  steady  habits.'  The  summer  of  1789  has  passed  ; 
three  little  classes,  composed  mostly  of  women,  have 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  73 

been  formed  ;  half  a  score  of  lengthy  circuits  marked 
out ;  and  now  the  pioneer  of  a  most  audacious  move- 
ment nears  the  confines  of  Boston,  the  reputed  'Hub 
of  the  Universe.'  He  comes  near,  enters  the  city, 
finds  no  church  edifice,  no  chapel,  no  hall,  in  which 
to  deliver  his  message,  and  from  a  table,  or  carpenter's 
bench,  it  matters  little  which,  he  preaches  under  the 
Old  Elm  on  Boston  Common. 

"  Had  I  an  audience  as  credulous  as  hangs,  at 
times,  upon  the  utterances  of  priests  in  some  parts  of 
the  world,  I  might  affirm  that  he  stood  on  a  carpenter's 
bench,  and  that  it  was  the  identical  bench  which  the 
Saviour  was  using  in  Nazareth,  when  He  left  His 
humble  calling  to  enter  upon  His  public  ministry  ; 
that,  as  soon  as  he  left  the  shop,  the  arch-angel 
Michael  caught  away  the  bench,  stored  it  in  a  dry 
closet  in  the  angelic  rectory,  and,  wishing  to  signalize 
the  advent  of  Methodism  into  New  England,  he  pro- 
duced it  for  the  use  of  Saint  Lee,  on  that  memorable 
occasion. 

"  There  stand  the  preacher  and  his  audience.  The 
curtain  drops,  and  while  we  meditate  on  the  picture, 
and  query  respecting  the  outcome  of  this  singular 
scene,  a  century  passes.  The  curtain  rises  ;  another 
picture  is  before  us.  New  England  of  to-day  is  por- 
trayed witli  its  hills,  and  valleys,  and  rivers,  as  before  ; 
but  in  all  else  how  changed  !  There  are  now  4,692,904 
inhabitants,  and  everywhere  cultivation,  thrift  and 
social  refinement  are  seen.  Now  a  score  of  religious 
bodies,  of  almost  ever}^  name  and  phase  of  faith,  are 
marshalled  on  the  field.     I  will  tabulate  them,  and 


74  CENTENNIAL  OF 

you  must  distribute  them  over  the  wide  Landscape,  as 
facts  require. 

Taijle  II.     Statistics  of  the  Religious  Denominations  in 
New  England,  in  1889. 

Church  Organiza-         Members 
tions  or  Societies.         Memoers. 

Congi-egational 1,518  229,012 

Methodist  Episcopal 1,150  125,1.88 

Baptist 948  129,338 

Protestant  Episcopal 420  09,582 

Free  Baptist     400  32,.371 

Adventist 109  5,544 

Disciples 12  900 

Christian .50  3,000 

Evangelical  Lutherans: 

Swedish 25  6,478 

Norwegian 16  1,000 

African  Methodist  Episcopal 24  1,992 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion    .   .  20  1,121 

Reformed  Episcopal 2  .350 

Presbyterian 40  6,891 

Quakers 63  4,464 

New  Jerusalem  Church 90  2,200 

Unitarian 248  25,000 

Universalist 308  12,824 

.lews 20 

Roman  Catholic      814 

Some  small  bodies,  estimated   ....  30  2,500 

Total 6,.368  659,705 

"  I  can  obtain  no  definite  knowledge  of  the  Jewisli 
population  of  New  England;  but  it  probably  amounts 
to  twelve  thousand.  The  Catholic  population  is  given 
officially  as  1,189,100,  in  1889.  This  ma.ss  of  people 
is  under  the  religious  guidance  of  one  arch-bishop,  six 
bishops,  and  nine  hundred  and  eighty-eight  priests. 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  75 

"T  give  statistics  for  1889,  because  some  of  the 
denominations  have  not  reported  for  a  later  date  than 
the  close  of  that  year. 

Table  III.  — Growth  of  the    Leading  Evangelical  De- 
nominations FROM   1880  to  1889. 

Population  .    .    . 
Congregational  . 
Methodist    Epis- 
copal   


1880. 
4,010,529 
213,998 

1889. 
4,624,597 
229,012 

Total  Gain. 

614,068 

15,014 

Per  Cent. 
15 

7 

133,302 
121,163 

,      31,672 

145,138 

129,338 

32,371 

11,810 
8,175 
699 

9 

6.7 

2.2 

53,000 

69,582 

16,582 

31 

1,096 

6,478 

5,382 

491 

;           200 
4,016 

1,000 
6,891 

800 

2,875 

400 

72 

Free  Will  Baptist, 

Protestant     Epis- 
copal   

Lutheran  Evan- 
gelical Swedes 

Lutheran  Evangel- 
ical Norwegians 

Presbyterian 

"  From  these  figures  it  appears  that,  in  the  rate  of 
progress,  the  strongest  evangelical  denominations  fall 
far  behind  the  population.  The  meagre  returns  which 
I  have  obtained  indicate  that  the  liberal  Christians, 
as  they  call  themselves,  scarcely  hold  their  own,  while 
the  population  and  the  evangelicals  are  constantly 
advancing. 

Table    IV. — The    Largest    Three    Protestant    Denomi- 
nations, at  Sundry  Dates. 

1840.     1850.    1865.     1880.    1889. 

Congregational,  155,702  156,118  179,840  213,978     229,012     . 
Methodist  Epis- 
copal  .    .    .          80,895     84,097   102,277   133,332     145,138 
Baptist  .   .    .         81,051     90,911     97,243  121,163     129,338 
Population  .   .  2,234,822 4,624,597 


76  CENTENNIAL   OF 

"  Comparing  the  membership  in  '40  and  '89,  a  period 
of  forty-nine  years,  we  find  that  the  Congregational- 
ists  gained  73,310,  or  forty-seven  per  cent. ;  the 
Baptists,  48,287,  or  sixty  per  cent. ;  the  Episcopal 
Methodists,  64,243,  or  seventy-nine  per  cent. ;  and  that 
the  last  named  gained  9,067  less  than  the  Congrega- 
tionalists,  and  15,956  more  than  the  Baptists.  In  this 
period  the  population  gained  one  hundred  and  six  per 
cent. 

Table  Y .  —  Growth  of  the  Same  Three  Denomina- 
tions FROM  1865  to  1885. 

1865.  1885.  Gain.       Per  Cent. 

Congregational  .  .  .  179,840  214,118  .34,278  19 
Methodist  Episcopal,  102,277  1.37,924  .35,647  35 
Baptist 97,243        12-3,320        26,077        27 

"In  this  period,  all  the  denominations  prospered, 
and  especially  the  Methodist  Episcopal. 

Table  VI.  — Showing  the  Progress  of  Four  Denomi- 
nations FROM  18S0  to  1889. 

Per  Cent. 

Increase  of  Population 15 

Congregational  Membership 7 

Methodist  Episcopal  Membership 9 

Baptist 6.7 

Protestant  Episcopal 31 

"  The  Congregationalists  and  Baptists  increased  at 
less  than  half  the  rate  of  the  population,  the  Metho- 
dists at  a  little  more  than  half  that  rate,  and  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopalians  more  than  twice  as  fast  as  the 
population. 

Table  YII.  —  Groavth  of  Three  Denominations  in 
Four  Years. 

1885.  1889.         Total  Gain.     Per  Cent. 

Congregational  .   .    .   214,118        229,012        14,894  7 

Methodist  Episcopal,  137,901         145,138  7,2.37  5.1 

Baptist 123,320        129,.340         0,020  4.8 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM. 


77 


1889. 

Total  Gain. 

Per  Cent. 

58,705 

24,061 

70 

28,259 

15,761 

126 

22,104 

10,894 

97 

21,508 


24,008 


5,200 


1,649 


32.5 


7.4 


19,465    (loss)l,025    (loss)5 


"  In  this  period,  the  increase  of  the  Congregational- 
ists  was  greater  than  that  of  tlie  Methodists  and  Bap- 
tists combined.  This  comparative  failure  of  the 
Methodists  is  indicated  by  facts  not  in  this  table  ;  yet 
it  will  be  only  temporary  if  we  are  true  to  our  mission. 

Gkowth  of  the  Largest  Three  Denominations  in  Forty- 
Nine  Years,  from  1840  to  1889,  In  Each  State. 

1840. 

Connecticut. 

Congregational  .     34,644 
Methodist    Epis- 
copal     12,498 

Baptist 11,210 

Maine. 
Congregational  .     16,308 
Methodist    Epis- 
copal       22,359 

Baptist 20,490 

Massachusetts. 

Congregational  .     02,513 
Methodist    Epis- 
copal        19,843 

Baptist 23,684 

New  Hampshire. 
Congregational  .     16,580 
Methodist    Epis- 
copal   10,519 

Baptist  ...'..       9,393 
Rhode  Island. 

Congi-egational  .       2,577 
Methodist    Epis- 
copal         1,971 

Baptist 5,196 

Vermont. 

Congregational  .     23,080 
Methodist    Epis- 
copal   14,705 

Baptist  .....     11,078 


101,660 

56,458 
58,301 

19,704 

12,193 
8,625 

6,865 

6,663 
12,071 


39,147 

36,615 
34,617 

3,124 

1,674 
(loss)768 

4,288 

4,692 
6,875 


63 

184 
146 

18 

16 
(loss)8 

166 

238 
132 


20,570    (loss)2,510     (loss)12 

17,557  2,852  18 

8,770    (loss)2,308    (loss)20 


78  CENTENNIAL  OF 

"  It  seems  that  the  Methodists  gained  in  every  one 
of  the  six  States,  and  made  the  hirgest  rate  of  gain  in 
four,  Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Ver- 
mont. The  Congregationalists  lost  in  Vermont,  but 
made  the  largest  gain  in  two  States,  Maine  and  New 
Hampshire. 

"The  Baptists  lost  nearly  seven  thousand  in  Maine, 
New  Hampshire  and  Vermont,  but  made  a  larger  total 
gain  than  either  of  the  others  in  Rhode  Island. 

"Supposing  that  another  essayist  will  discuss  the 
subject  of  churches  in  the  cities  and  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts, I  have  given  but  little  attention  to  that  topic ; 
yet  a  few  facts  will  be  relevant,  tliough  local. 

"In  the  cities  of  Massac) msetts,  from  1880  to  1887, 
the  Congregationalists  gained  fourteen  per  cent.,  the 
Baptists  twenty-one  per  cent.,  and  the  Methodists 
twenty-five  per  cent.  In  the  towns  of  the  State, 
the  Congregationalists  and  Baptists  gained  one  per 
cent,  each  and  the  Methodists  more  than  five  per  cent. 
From  some  data  at  hand,  I  judge  that  the  last  two 
3^ears  have  been  less  favorable  for  us. 

SUNDAY    SCHOOLS. 

"  It  seems  probable  that  the  first  Sunday-school  in 
New  England  was  formed  by  a  Wesleyan  Methodist, 
Mr.  Elijah  Bachelder,  in  Worcester  County,  in  1795 
or  1796 ;  the  second  by  Mr.  Benedict,  a  Baptist,  in 
Pawtucket,  R.l  ,  in  1799  or  1804 ;  the  third  by  two 
Congregational  young  ladies,  Joanna  Prince  and 
Hannah  Hall,  in  Beverly,  in  1810.  The  year  1816 
o[)ened  auspiciously  for  the  Sunday-school  cause  in 


NEW    ENGLAND    METHODISM.  79 

New  England.  In  the  spring  or  early  summer  of 
that  year,  Mrs.  Dr.  Sharp  started  a  school  in  the 
Charles  Street  Baptist  Church  in  Boston,  and  an 
active  lady  started  another  in  West  Street  Congrega- 
tional Church.  About  the  time  of  these  movements, 
and  till  the  contrary  is  proved,  I  will  assume  a  week 
or  two  in  advance  of  them,  Thomas  Bowler  and 
Paul  Newhall  established  a  school  in  the  town  school 
house  in  Lynn,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Common 
Street  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  *  in  that  city. 
That  school  has  had  a  glorious  career  for  seventy- 
four  years,  and  is  now  full  of  vital  force,  having 
about  seven  hundred  and  fifty  members. 

Sunday-school   Membership    of    ,Some  Denominations    in 

1889. 

Schools.  Members. 

Congregational ],518  245,276 

Methodist  Episcopal     1,254  169,100     • 

Baptist 919  136,252 

Protestant  Episcopal 450  53,195 

Free  Baptist     400  32,100 

Presbyterian 38  5,060 

Adventist 71  4,605 

Christian 50  3,500 

Universalist 282  27,683 

Unitarian  (estimated) 248  30,000 

Jews 20  1,800 

Catholic  (estimated) 814  200,000 

"  The  position  of  Methodism  in  this  column  is 
highly  honorable,  and  we  respectfully  suggest  to 
ardent  Sunday-school  workers  tliat  we  are  in  the 
field,  and  that  we  have  gained  our  position  by  doing 
our  work  in  our  own  way. 

*  See  Note  in  Appendix. 


80  CENTENNIAL  OF 

EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

"I  desired,  in  the  outset,  to  tabulate  all  the  essen- 
tial facts  relating  to  the  denominational  institutions 
of  New  England,  but  have  found  it  impossible  to 
collect  the  requisite  data,  and  so  present  some  gen- 
eral statements. 

"The  Congregationalists  have  always  championed 
the  cause  of  education.  In  1790  they  had  three  col- 
leges and  several  academies  ;  now  they  can  boast  of 
nine  colleges  and  a  large  number  of  academies. 
Academical  education  by  the  churches  has  constantly 
diminished,  since  the  establishment  of  the  high 
schools  at  public  expense. 

"  The  Baptists,  ever  awake  aiid  ready  for  progress, 
had  one  college  and  four  or  five  preparatory  schools 
a  hundred  years  ago.  Their  secondary  schools  are 
still  maintained  in  a  flourishing  condition,  and  they 
now  have  two  colleges,  and  a  popular  theological 
school.  The  property  of  these  institutions  amounts 
to  more  than  $4,560,000. 

"The  Unitarians,  though  patrons  of  learning,  have 
established  no  schools  in  New  England,  unless  we 
may  place  Clark  University,  at  Worcester,  under 
their  banner. 

"The  Universalists  have  a  fine  college  on  Tuft's 
Hill,  in  Somerville,  which  is  well  endowed  and 
vigorously  conducted. 

"In  1790  the  Methodist  institutions  of  learning 
were  all  stowed  away  in  one-half  of  Jesse  Lee's 
saddle  bags,  and  consisted  of   a  Bible,  hymn  book, 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  81 

Church  Discipline,  a  number  or  two  of  the  Methodist 
Magazine,    and  a  volume  of   Aristotle's  philosophy. 

"  In  1890  we  rejoice  to  behold  eiglit  first  class 
seminaries  and  collegiate  institutes,  located  respec- 
tively at  Bucksport  and  Kent's  Hill,  Maine  ;  Tilton, 
N.H. ;  Monti^elier  and  Poultney,  Vt.  ;  East  Green- 
wich, R.I. ;  and   Auburndale  and  Wilbraham,  Mass. 

"  In  addition  to  these,  there  are  two  Universities. 
The  venerable  Wesleyan,  the  mother  of  us  all,  at 
Middletown,  Conn.,  has  long  been  a  poAver  in 
educational  circles,  is  now  far  more  prosperous  than 
at  any  previous  date  in  its  history,  and  has  a 
property  of  more  than  11,600,000.  It  is  broadly 
organized,  and   is    conducted   with   great   efficiency. 

"■  The  other  institution,  Boston  University,  is  one 
of  the  educational  marvels  of  our  times.  It  had  its 
origin  in  an  earnest  desire  to  strengthen  evangelism, 
and  especially  Methodism. 

"  It  was  not  created  to  advance  secular  scholarship 
merely,  but  piety  and  sound  learning. 

"  There  it  stands  !  on  the  heights  of  Boston,  an 
honor  to  the  w^hole  Christian  Church.  It  has  many 
departments.  Its  college  is  well  filled  with  students, 
and  its  instruction  is  inferior  to  no  college  instruction 
in  this  country.  Its  Law  andTheological  Schools  are 
almost  without  rivals,  and  its  Medical  School 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  schools  teaching  the  same 
theory  of  medicine  ;  its  College  of  Music  is  distin- 
guished throughout  the  nation,  and  its  affiliated 
institutions  in  Rome  and  Athens  have  ecumenical 
renown.     Its   faculty   numbers   a    full    hundred    of 


82  CENTENNIAL   OP 

instructors,  and  it  has  about  nine  hundred  students. 
These  professors  and  students  are  by  no  means  all 
Methodists ;  yet  the  institution  was  originated  by 
Methodist  brains,  hearts,  and  funds,  and  is  sustained 
by  the  same.  Present  value  of  property,  $1,500,000. 
"  Roman  Catholicism,  ever  alert  to  move  on  winning 
lines,  has  made  great  educational  advances.  It  has 
five  colleges,  a  score  of  academies,  one  theological 
school,  and  two  hundred  and  ten  parochial  schools. 
The  schools  of  this  grade  contain  78,700  pupils,  and 
all  these  are  to  be  intense  Catholics. 

CHURCH  PKOPEKTY  IN  1889. 

"  Congregational  church  edifices,  1,406,  and  878 
parsonages,  estimated  at  twenty-three  and  one  tliird 
million  dollars  above  debts.  Baptist  church  edifices, 
943  ;  estimated  value  -$9,585,400.  Methodist  Episco- 
pal, 1100  church  edifices  and  about  900  parsonages, 
stand  at  $11,120,000,  with  an  indebtedness  of  about 
$1,000,000. 

HOME  EXPENSES  AND  BENEVOLENCES. 

"  For  these  purposes  the  Congregationalists  raise 
yearly  $3,880,000 ;  the  Baptists,  $1,720,000 ;  and 
the  Methodists  $2,000,000.  The  Protestant  Episco- 
palians are,  in  proportion  to  their  number,  the  largest 
contributors  to  church  and  religious  enterprises. 

"The  liberality  of  these  Christian  denominations 
is  worthy  of  great  praise,  not  only  for  the  princely 
gifts  indicated   by    the    figures   just  given,   but   for 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  83 

multitudes  of  gifts  for  numerous  religious  purposes 
not  mentioned  by  me. 

"  Still  we  must  remember  that  the  vast  amount  of 
property  they  represent  has  resulted  very  largely 
from  the  general  rise  in  values.  So,  while  the 
churches  have  ministered  to  the  Avelfare  of  the  public, 
general  industry  and  thrift  have  augmented  the 
wealth  of  the  churches. 

"  We  should  remember,  also,  that  some  of  the 
denominations  have  received  largely  from  the  public 
funds.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  Congregational- 
ists.  Many  of  the  sites  of  their  older  churches  and 
parsonages  were  taken  out  of  the  public  domain. 
The  same  is  true  in  regard  to  their  educational 
institutions.  The  Baptists  also  have  received  con- 
siderable aid  in  their  educational  work  from  the 
same  source,  or  from  people  not  professing  their 
faith. 

"The  facts  now  presented  prove  that  Methodism 
in  New  England  has  made  a  marvellous  progress 
during  the  century  —  a  progress  unequalled  by  any 
branch  of  the  Church  of  Christ  since  the  Pentecost, 
and  it  indicates  what  wonders  could  be  achieved  by  a 
j)eople  wholly  the  Lord's. 

"  But  this  is  not  all ;  we  must  look,  in  part,  for 
the  growth  of  Methodism  in  other  denominations. 
Its  altars  have  largely  supplied  recruits  for  the  pews 
and  pulpits  of  some  of  the  Calvinistic  churches.  Had 
it  retained  all  its  converts,  it  would  have  outstripped 
the  population  in  growth,  and  have  accumulated 
much  greater  resources  of  power. 


84  CENTENNIAL   OF 

"It  has  thoroughly  modified  tho  older  denomina- 
tions, in  respect  to  their  matter  and  manner  of 
preaching,  and  in  their  views  of  theology  and 
Christian  experience. 

"  It  has  compelled  a  thorough  change  of  the  old 
methods  of  church  work.  It  has  added  to  the 
number  and  variety  of  Sabbath  services  ;  established 
evening  services,  camp  meetings,  '  four  days' 
meetings,  and  revival  meetings  for  immediate  effect. 
Methodism  has  given  liberty  to  women  in  the  local 
churches ;  has  opened  to  her  the  higher  schools 
of  learning  ;  and  will  soon  say  to  her,  'come  up  still 
higher.'  With  sublime  heroism,  Methodism  assailed 
the  errors  of  the  churches  and  the  vices  of  society. 

"  New  England  Methodism  was  in  advance  of  oiher 
denominations  in  the  anti-slavery  reform,  and 
especially  so  in  the  great  temperance  reformation.  The 
poet  who  is  to  follow  me,  is  supposed,  to  have 
delivered  the  first  total  abstinence  address  ever  given 
in  these  States.  We  all  stand  on  the  total  abstinence 
platform  to-day. 

"  It  has  stimulated  every  other  denomination  to 
higher  and  better  work  in  all  departments  of  moral 
and  Christian  effort.  It  has  breathed  into  them  a 
vital  faith.  It  has  led  the  other  Methodism  of  the 
nation  in  the  cause  of  missions.  New  England 
Methodists  responded  to  the  Macedonian  call  of  the 
Flat-head  Indians  ;  a  New  Englander  led  the  way  to 
Africa,  and  cried  in  his  last  hour,  '  Let  a  thousand 
fall,  but  let  not  Africa  be  given  up.'  New  Englanders 
led  the  way  to  South  America,  and  when  the  groans 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  85 

of  India  struck  our  shores,  a  member  of  the  New 
England  Conference  said,  '  Here,  Lord,  am  I,  send 
me  ' ;  and  later,  when  a  similar  call  came  from 
Mexico,  the  same  voice  said,  '  Here  am  I,  send  me  ' ; 
and  William  Butler  became  the  founder  of  missions 
in  two  empires. 

"  We  have  reason  to  thank  God  for  what  He  has 
done  for  the  world  through  Methodism,  yet  we 
should  remember  that  it  is  now  passing  through  the 
most  critical  and  trying  period  of  its  history,  and  that 
it  becomes  us  to  preserve  its  integrity  in  doctrine, 
method  and  life. 

"  I  am  a  Methodist  because  I  believe  that  Method- 
ism is  the  best  expression  of  God's  thought  in 
theology  that  has  ever  been  given  to  mankind ;  that 
its  polity  is  the  best  polity  for  the  salvation  of  the 
world;  and  that  its  methods  are  biblical  and 
philosophical. 

"  I  respect  all  denominations,  and  live  in  peace 
with  them  all ;  but  Methodism  is  a  priceless  inheri- 
tance that  has  come  to  me  as  a  free  gift.  It  is  mine 
to  cherish  and  preserve,  at  great  sacrifice,  if  need  be. 
If  I  become  dissatisfied  with  its  doctrines,  and  wisli 
to  go  into  new  departures,  it  is  not  miife  to  destroy 
the  house  that  has  sheltered  me,  and  which  I  have 
promised  to  protect ;  but  it  is  mine  to  step  down  and 
step  out,  thanking  God  that  I  have  been  allowed  to 
stay  for  a  while  in  the  sacred  temple. 

"  It  is  our  duty  to  protect  the  system  from  harm  ;  to 
see  that  it  receives  no  detriment.  It  is  our  duty  to 
cherish  a  spirit  of  Christian  unity,  of  brotherly  love  ; 


86  CENTENNIAL   OF 

but  the  cry  now  so  often  heard,  and  so  earnest  for 
undenominational  union  and  church  confederation,  I 
consider  quite  too  selfish  and  give  it  little  favor. 

"  No  man  proposes  an  undenominational  union 
whicli  he  thinks  will  decimate  or  weaken  his  own 
church,  but  men  who  find  themselves  or  their 
churches  lagging  in  the  rear,  are  apt  to  cry  for  union. 
The  Methodists  have  rarely  started  a  union,  not 
because  they  are  unfriendly  to  their  neighbors,  but 
because  they  obtain  the  best  results  by  working  in 
their  own  way. 

"  Jesse  Lee  had  a  sublime  mission  to  New  England, 
and  Methodism  did  liave  one.  If  it  no  longer  has  a 
mission  to  tlie  people,  let  it  die  and  be  buried.  If  it 
still  has  a  mission,  a  sublime  and  glorious  purpose 
to  accomplish,  let  us  stand  by  it  and  promote  it  '  with 
our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and  our  sacred  honor.'  " 

At  the  close  of  Dr.  Twombly's  admirable  paper, 
the  Chairman  introduced  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Mark 
Trafton,  D.D.,  who  read  the  following  original  poem. 

INTRODUCTIOX   OF    METHODISM    IXTO    BOSTON,    BY 
JESSE  LEE,  1790. 


Seventeen-ninety — in  summer's  prime  — 
The  sinkinj^  sun  marked  day's  decline, 
Sultry  and  fierce  the  noontide  heat 
Fell  ui)on  hamlet,  lane,  and  street, 
But  now  to  quench  Sol's  burning  ray 
Comes  the  cool  sea-breeze  from  the  Bay; 
On  Boston's  elms  the  quivering  leaves 
Sigh  to  the  gentle  evening  breeze; 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  87 

Softly  and  low  the  tinkling  bells 
Of  lowing  kine  from  grassy  dells, 
"Which  slowly  seek  each  cottage  door, 
To  yield  their  richly  treasured  store, 
While  Boston's  maidens,  brown  and  hale, 
With  bared  arms,  fill  the  foaming  pail. 

O  happy  times  of  manners  plain, 
Of  truthful  deal,  and  honest  gain; 
Industrious  hands  gave  those  blest  days, 
Not  Paris  dress,  nor  Paris  ways. 
Our  stalwart  sires,  true  sons  of  toil. 
Who  swung  the  sledge,  or  tilled  the  soil, 
Honest  with  hand,  and  heart,  and  head, 
To  meet  the  call  for  daily  bread. 
Hail  the  calm  hour  of  closing  day, 
Their  heavy  burdens  off  to  lay. 
And  find  at  eve  that  sweet  repose. 
Which  the  hard  toiler  only  knows. 
Their  simple  eve's  repast  now  done 
They  wander  forth  at  setting  sun. 
Fly  the  close  air  of  narrow  street. 
To  seek  the  Common's  cool  retreat.* 

The  lovely  Bay  in  quiet  lies. 
Bright  with  the  glow  of  crimsoned  skies; 
Silent,  save  plash  of  dipping  oar 
Of  shallop  passing  slowly  o'er; 
No  steamers  madly  churned  the  wave. 
No  gongs  their  shrieking  signals  gave. 
No  foundries  flashed  their  lurid  glare. 
No  poisonous  gases  filled  the  air; 
But,  when  the  day's  last  task  was  found. 
Silence  and  darkness  reigned  around. 

But  on  this  day  at  evening  tide 
Were  moving  forms  on  every  side; 
Up  Cornhill  alley,  through  Bromfield  lane. 
The  musing  crowd  in  silence  came ; 
From  Faneuil  Hall,  from  fair  Fort  Hill, 
From  North  Square  round  to  Back  Bay  mill ; 
All  tending,  in  the  twilight  gray, 

*  See  Note  A. 


88  CENTENNIAL   OP 

To  Boston's  pride,  which  stretched  away 

From  Tremont  road  to  far  Back  Bay, 

"  Boston  Common  "  —  you'll  travel  far, 

See  "Champs  Elysees  "  or  Champs  de  Mars," 

Or  "Windsor  Park,"  or  "Hyde,"  or  "James," 

Skirting  the  banks  of  sluggish  "  Thames," 

Or  "  Madrid's  Plaza,"  or  gardens  gay 

Which  Rome  or  Florence  still  display; 

The  eye  lights  on  no  fairer  scene. 

Than  Boston  Common  in  summer's  sheen. 

'Tis  safe  to  add,  lest  doubts  arise, 

"  It  best  is  seen  through  Boston  eyes." 

Yet,  sooth,  'twas  lovely  as  it  lay 

In  the  mild  light  of  closing  day; 

Its  grassy  mounds,  unchanged,  rose  high; 

O'er  its  calm  lake  weird  shadows  fly. 

Its  princely  elms  were  branching  wide. 

Then  fresh  in  all  their  virgin  pride; 

The  echoes  soft  of  tinkling  bells. 

The  sweet  bird  notes  in  shady  dells; 

Its  winding  paths,  its  foliage  wild. 

Untamed  by  art,  fair  Nature's  child  ; 

And  Boston's  son  disowned  shall  be. 

Whose  travelled  heart  turns  not  to  thee. 

The  sun"s  last  rays  were  lingering  there. 

While  to  this  centre  crowds  repair, 

Drawn  by  the  rumor  that  this  night, 

"  The  town  will  hang  a  strange  new  light."* 

Fast,  far,  and  wide  the  tidings  flew; 

Like  Athens,  Boston  craved  the  new; 

A  sight  like  this  had  not  been  seen 

Since  hanging  Quakers  graced  the  green. 

Excitement  swelled  each  beating  heart, 

With  flashing  eyes  and  lips  apart. 

And  oft  was  heard  above  the  hum. 

The  (luostion  put,  "  Is  the  hangman  come?" 

But  now,  far  out  on  Boston  neck. 
Distant  and  dim,  a  moving  speck. 
Which  every  moment  larger  grew, 
*  See  Note  B. 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  89 

Yielding  a  clearer,  fuller  view; 

Now  nearer  drawn  to  all  is  shown 

A  horseman,  dusty  and  alone. 

Trotter  or  racker,  I  cannot  tell, 

I  know  but  this  —  he  was  mounted  well. 

A  man  was  he  of  noble  mould, 

And  sat  his  steed  like  knight  of  old; 

No  steel-wrought  armor  shields  his  breast, 

In  hodden  gray  was  plainly  dressed ; 

His  flowing  locks,  just  touched  by  gray. 

Round  his  broad  shoulders  richly  lay; 

With  buckled  knee,  and  broad-brimmed  hat, 

Straight-collared  coat,  and  white  cravat; 

Full  ruddy  cheek,  and  shaven  chin. 

Lips  finely  curved,  compressed,  and  thin, 

A  lofty  brow  like  marble  shown, 

Where  kingly  thought  sat  on  its  throne; 

No  knightly  spurs  enclasped  his  heel. 

Nor  grasped  his  hand  the  flashing  steel; 

No  herald  goes  before,  to  call 

Sentry  or  warder  to  the  wall ; 

No  squire  comes  ambling  close  behind. 

His  shield  to  bear,  his  casque  to  bind; 

Yet,  who  looks  on  that  calm,  blue  eye 

May  read  the  power  "  to  do,  or  die." 

True  knight  of  Holy  Cross  was  he. 

Of  Apostolic  chivalry. 

He  beai-eth  "gules  on  azure  field," 
A  cross  embossed  upon  his  shield; 
A  "  dying  Lamb  "  composed  his  crest, 
A  crown  celestial  on  his  breast; 
His  motto  written  bold  and  plain, 
"  To  live  is  Christ,  to  die  is  gain  "  ; 
No  fading  honors  seeks  he  now. 
No  earthly  crown  to  press  his  brow; 
No  worldly  gains,  a  higher  prize. 
Above  his  richer  guerdon  lies. 
With  purer  zeal  than  ancient  knight. 
His  work  all  earthly  wrongs  to  right; 
The  day  of  freedom  to  proclaim, 


90  CENTENNIAL  OF 

And  spread  the  Conqueror's  wondrous  fame. 

Alone  his  Master  stood,  alone 

Ilis  peerless  courage  shall  be  shown; 

Churches  no  call  to  him  extend, 

No  ringing  chimes  a  welcome  send; 

But  on  he  comes;  his  good  steed's  feet 

Arouse  the  echoes  in  the  street; 

The  gate  is  reached  —  the  heedless  throng 

Scarce  note  him  as  he  passed  along; 

A  moment  he  surveys  the  scene, 

The  moving  crowd,  the  lovelj^  green; 

A  moment  lifts  his  thought  in  prayer; 

"  To  pause  or  pass  ?"  the  cross  was  there: 

To  pause  or  pass,  succeed  or  fail  ? 

What  interests  crowd  that  trembling  scale ! 

He  bares  his  head  to  the  cool  breeze, 

Now  whispering  through  those  noble  trees, 

Dismounts,  and  slowly  seeks  the  shade 

Of  that  "  Old  Elm,"  whose  branches  made 

Such  temple  as  no  human  hand 

Ilad  reared  by  art  in  any  land  ; 

A  moment  paused,  then  raised  a  song. 

The  new,  strange  notes  are  borne  along 

Upon  the  breeze,  the  crowd  draws  near, 

Charmed  by  the  magic  tones  they  hear: 

"  Rock  of  Ages  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  thee": 
'Perhaps  'twas  this,  or  it  might  be, 

"Come,  sinners,  to  the  gospel  feast, 

Let  every  soul  be  Jesus'  guest; 

Ye  need  not  one  be  left  behind. 

For  Christ  hath  bidden  all  mankind  "  : 

Then,  kneeling,  says,  "And  let  us  pray." 

But  such  a  sight  until  that  day, 

Boston,  I  wis',  had  failed  to  see, 

A  man  in  prayer  on  bended  knee! 
Rising  from  short,  yet  earnest  prayer. 

He  opens  his  commission  there: 

"  Old  South,"  "  King's  Chapel,"  "  Chauncy  Place,' 

Had  doubtless  echoed  "  terms  of  grace  " ; 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  91 

Chaste,  elegant,  the  words  had  rolled, 
Artistic,  classic,  smooth,  and  cold; 
Learned  and  logical,  as  the  schools 
Enforced  the  homiletic  rules; 
But  such  appeal  in  bygone  years 
Had  never  tingled  Boston's  ears. 
So  plainly  showed  "  the  gospel  plan," 
So  warmly  ui-ged  God's  love  to  man; 
His  gracious  purpose  to  receive 
All  who  in  "  Jesus  shall  believe  " ; 
Salvation  now,  full,  rich,  and  free ; 
"And,  oh,"  he  cried,  "  He  saved  me!  " 
The  trembling  lij),  the  falling  tear 
Show  honest  heart,  and  soul  sincere. 

They  heard,  and  left!     Boston,  polite, 
Opened  no  door,  and  none  invite 
The  weary  man  to  welcome  rest; 
No  opened  heart  God's  servant  blest; 
And  there  he  stands,  in  twilight  gray. 
Like  Him  who  had  not  where  to  lay 
His  weary  head;  yet  he  may  lie 
Beneath  his  Father's  starlit  sky. 
He  heaves  a  sigh ;  he  turns  away ; 
He  mounts  again  his  faithful  gray. 
And  pacing  up  thi'ovigh  Tremont  Street, 
Shakes  Boston's  dust  from  off  his  feet ; 
Then  on  through  Charlestown  eastward  bore. 
To  find  in  Lynn  an  open  door. 

II.    He  Dreams. 

With  heavy  heart  he  seeks  his  rest,  ' 

His  spirits  by  sad  thoughts  oppressed ; 

Of  Boston  thinks,  with  grief  and  pain; 

Of  labor  lost,  of  toil  in  vain; 

False  sons  of  sires  who  sadly  trod 

The  frozen  sands  to  worship  God : 

Vain  hope  to  see  in  future  years 

Fruit  from  the  seed  sown  there  in  teai'S. 

Boston  rejects  him!  not  alone 


92  CENTENNIAL  OP 

The  servant,  who  the  seed  has  sown; 
But  Him  whose  word  is  ever  true, 
"  He  heareth  me  who  heareth  you." 
He  labors  with  this  painful  thought, 
Till  sleep  her  soothing  cup  has  brought. 

But  lo!  his  chamber  blazes  bright, 
An  angel  form  in  robes  of  light, 
Who  smiling  says,  "  Dismiss  thy  fears, 
Look  forward  through  the  coming  years; 
Boston  is  rich  in  germs  of  grace, 
Glad  eyes  shall  yet  thy  footsteps  trace ; 
Rise,  o'er  thy  form  this  mantle  throw, 
Back  o'er  thy  pathway  let  us  go. 
Boston  rejects  you;  you  shall  see 
What  Boston  shall  in  future  be." 

High  on  the  State  House  dome  they  stand; 
Xorth,  west  and  south,  the  teeming  land 
Seemed  filled  with  busy  life;  o'er  all 
Rose  dome,  and  tower,  and  turret  tall ; 
The  hills  with  clustering  villas  crowned; 
The  vales  with  hum  of  life  resound; 
On  every  hand  rise  tapering  spires; 
On  every  side  glow  altar  lires: 
There  Chelsea  all  the  valley  fills; 
Here  Charlestowu  crowns  historic  hills; 
There  classic  Cambridge  westward  grows, 
Where  gliding  Charles  in  quiet  Hows; 
While  Roxbury,  graced  with  varied  charms, 
Wooed,  willing  sinks  in  Boston's  arms. 
Yonder  'mid  rattling  hammer's  stroke, 
East  Boston  glimmers  through  the  smoke; 
While  each  their  numerous  churches  boast. 
As  light-houses  which  line  the  coast; 
And  this  result  the  channel  shows. 
Through  which  the  true  succession  flows. 
"Boston  rejects  you;  now  she  calls 
A  score  of  watchmen  to  her  walls; 
A  mighty  host  has  cro.ssed  the  Hood, 
An  arniy  vast  is  on  the  road. 
From  the  small  seed  beneath  the  tree 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  93 

fou  dropped  in  tears,  this  fruit  you  see; 
No  power  shall  this  great  work  destroy, 
You  sowed  in  tears,  they  reap  in  joy. 
When  thou  art  gathered  to  thy  rest. 
Thousands  shall  rise  to  call  thee  blest. 
But  come  to  Bromfield  Alley  where 
Thy  monument  stands  proudly  fair." 

Well  might  the  hero  feel  surprise 
At  what  now  meets  his  wondering  eyes. 
A  granite  structure  towers  on  high. 
Toward  the  over-arching  sky ; 
Massive  and  grand,  yet  chaste  in  style, 
Vying  with  ancient  classic  pile; 
Spanning  the  facade' s  ample  space, 
They  "  Wesleyan  Association"  trace. 

Up  the  broad  hall  by  surging  throng 
Our  unseen  guests  were  borne  along. 
Over  an  archway  on  the  wall 
They  smiling  read  "  Wesleyan  Hall ;  " 
Within,  'mid  jets  of  brilliant  light, 
Rare  beauties  burst  upon  their  sight. 
"  Here  art,  and  taste,  and  wealth  combine 
To  rear  this  monument  of  thine: 
And  coming  ages  here  maj"^  see 
Pattern  of  true  church  unity; 
This  granite  pile  shall  symbol  pi-ove, 
And  bond  of  pure  fraternal  love. 
And  Wesley's  children  yet  shall  be 
Bound  in  one  grand  fraternity; 
No  white  nor  black,  no  caste  nor  clan, 
But  hand  grasp  hand  of  brother  man." 

Shielding  in  shades  his  golden  wings. 
His  ward  our  angel  forward  brings. 
"  The  root  of  New  England's  Methodist  tree," 
He  said,  "  I  present  to  you,  Jesse  Lee. 
It  would  please  him,  no  doubt,  to  take  the  hand 
Of  each  of  this  noble  Wesleyan  Band. 
We  lack  time  to  visit  the  model  book  store, 
And  to  give  but  a  glance  at  our  Herald's  true  corps. 
Zion's  Herald,  the  first  in  the  field,  takes  the  lead 


04  CENTENNIAL   OF 

In  niodciu  reforms,  yet  still  holds  to  tho  Weed. 
When  Haven  for  Episcopo's  Mount  took  his  flifjht, 
And  Pierce  changed  his  work  for  a  mansion  in  light, 
Then  the  present  incumbent  dropped  in  on  the  scene, 
And,  -wielding  his  mace,  smashed  the  E.P.*  machine. 
Men  may  miss  their  calling,  —  he  here  finds  his  place, 
And  easily  leads  in  the  hebdomadal  race. 
Long,  long  may  the  Herald  its  freedom  maintain. 
Until  wrongs  are  all  righted,  and  Love  holds  her  reign. 
His  aids,  first  the  Chaplain  from  your  Uncle  Sam's  fleet, 
To  secure  a  good   '  out-look '   on  tli^  front  has  a  seat; 
A  benison  weekly,  is  poured  on  his  head, 
As  his  S.S.  prelections  by  hundreds  are  read. 
The  triad  to  fill,  and  to  clear  from  all  doubt 
That  naught  here  is  perfect  with  woman  left  out, 
The  last  a  young  lady  of  genius  and  tact. 
To  arrange,  to  revise,  to  correct,  to  extract. 
To  breathe  o'er  its  pages  a  womanly  charm, 
Its  ruggedness  soften,  hyper-critics  disarm; 
"When  typos  are  puzzled  by  a  phrase  out  of  sight. 
Her  spectacles  focus  and  bring  it  to  light." 

They  pass  to  the  pavement,  when  lo,  at  the  door 
Stood  Jesse  Lee's  horse,  whose  saddle-tree  bore 
A  parchment  from  Harvard:  —  "  This  Methodist  horse 
Is,  Honoris  Causa,  made  Doctor  of  Laws  I  "  t 
"Good  luck,"  cries  our  hero,  "  forsooth,  heretofore 
A  head  with  more  brains  seldom  passed  through  that  door!" 

'Tis  morn;  the  sun  came  up,  and  Lee 
So  cheerful  .seemed,  his  host  said  "he 
Would  know  the  cause."    Lee  smiling  said, 
"Such  dreams  ne'er  filled  a  poet's  head. 
Boston  with  Methodists  alive 
I  saw,  as  swarms  a  summer  hive; 
While  churches,  bells,  and  organs  loud, 
Thick  on  my  wondering  fancies  crowd ; 
While  what  of  all  the  rest  most  rare 
A  college  and  school  theologic  were  there." 
Musing,  he  bowed  his  reverend  head, 
"  With  God  'tis  possible,"  he  said. 

*  Eccleaiastico-Political .  t  See  Note  O. 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  95 

Then  flashed  his  eye  with  heavenly  light 
As  ou  him  fell  prophetic  sight; 
As  Moses'  face,  so  his  now  shone, 
Sublime  and  deep  his  wondrous  tone; 
"  Him  I  shall  see,  but  oh,  not  now, 
With  kingly  crown  upon  His  brow; 
His  power  behold,  but  oh,  not  nigh, 
His  star  I  see  ascending  high ; 
The  sceptre  of  the  Conquering  One, 
From  Jacob  springs,  great  David's  Son; 
O  goodly  tents,  O  countless  host ! 
Against  thee  vain  enchantments  boast; 
No  divination  checks  thy  way 
To  purchased  universal  sway; 
False  creeds  and  idol  temples  fall, 
And  David's  Son  is  Lord  of  all." 

Indulgent  friends,  my  sands  arc  run. 
My  tale  is  told,  my  thread  is  spun; 
When  the  next  century's  peaens  swell, 
A  better  bard  the  tale  shall  tell. 

At  the  close  of  his  poem,  Dr.  Trafton  was  greeted 
with  a  round  of  hearty  apphxuse.  The  Chairman 
then  called  upon  Dr.  W.  R.  Clark,  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Resolutions,  who  presented  the  follow- 
ing document,  which  was  adopted  as  the  response  of 
the  Convention  to  the  kindly  greeting  of  the  Metho- 
dist Preachers'  Meeting  in  New  York. 

Boston,  October  22,  1890. 
To  THE  New  York  Methodist  Pkeachers'  Meeting, 
Greeting. 

Dear  Fathers  and  Brethren,  —  Your  "salutations  and  congrat- 
ulations," duly  received,  were  read  last  evening  to  an  enthusi- 
astic audience  of  two  thousand  persons,  at  the  opening  session 
of  our  Centennial  celebration.  The  curtain  of  the  century 
rises,  and  before  us  is  the  object  lesson  upon  which  you  so 
gracefully  congratulate  us.     A  single  man,  the  sole  representa- 


06  CENTENNIAL   OF 

tivc  of  Metlioflism,  opcninj;  bis  message  of  salvation  inidcr  a 
tree  on  Boston  Common,  at  the  one  end  of  the  century,  and 
Methodism  springing  from  that  spot  across  the  brief  historic 
period,  in  the  face  of  theological  giants  armed  cap-a-pie,  and  over 
the  breastworks  of  a  system  of  theology,  —  the  most  powerful 
the  world  has  ever  seen,  —  into  six  Annual  Conferences,  embrac- 
ing one  thousand  ministers,  presiding  over  one  thousand 
churches,  aggregating  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  mem- 
bers with  their  eleven  million  dollars  of  church  property,  four 
millions  invested  in  literary  institutions,  four  hundred  thousand 
in  a  denominational  headquarters  in  the  heart  of  the  city  of 
Boston,  and  with  a  weekly  religious  newspaper,  the  oldest, 
and  not  tlic  oldest  in  American  Methodism,  which  in  its  cir- 
culation and  influence  holds  a  front  rank  among  i-eligious 
journals. 

Such  are  the  achievements  over  which  you,  with  us,  sincerely 
rejoice  and  give  thanks  to  the  great  Head  of  the  Church,  aud 
which  form  a  small  section  of  the  great  denominational  family 
born  in  your  city,  and  also  of  the  preaching  of  a  single  man, 
one  hundred  and  twenty  years  ago. 

We  hope  to  prove  not  unworthy  of  the  high  trusts  hereby 
imposed  upon  us,  and  that,  imder  God,  by  the  fidelity  of  our- 
selves aud  of  those  who  shall  come  after  lis,  the  ^lethodism 
which  shall  crown  the  close  of  the  century  upon  which  we  are 
entering,  shall  be  to  the  present,  what  the  present  is  to  the 
Methodism  impersonated  in  Jesse  Lee  on  Boston  Common,  one 
hundred  years  ago. 

Please  accept  our  cordial  thanks  for  your  fraternal  greetings, 
and  our  high  appreciation  of  your  intelligent  interest  in  what 
God  hath  wrought  on  behalf  of  New  England  Methodism. 
Fraternally  yours, 

William  Claflix,  President. 

G.  A.  Crawford,  Secretary. 

The  Convention  was  then  dismissed  with  the 
benediction,  and  a  very  interesting  session  came  to 
a  close. 

Note  A.  —  Boston  Common  was  the  original  cow  pasture  for  Boston's  early  set- 
tlers.    Each  householder  had  the  right  to  turn  one  cow  upon  the  Common.    It  was 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  97 


also  the  place  for  the  burial  of  suicides  and  criminals.  The  three  Quakers  hanged  by 
the  Puritans  were  buried  on  the  spot  where  now  is  seen  a  water-fountain,  on  the 
north-east  corner  of  the  Common,  near  the  gate. 

Note  B.  This  is  a  slight  anachronism.  The  first  lamps  for  the  lighting  of  the 
Common  were  brought  out  from  England  before  Lee's  first  visit  to  Boston.  Some 
wag,  probably  Rev.  Matthew  Byles,  the  wit  of  that  day,  started  the  rumor  that  a 
"  New  Light "  would  be  hung  on  the  Common  that  night.  That  incident  is  used  here 
to  account  for  the  number  of  people  Lee  found  there. 

Note  C.  —  This  incident  is  also  anachronistic.  On  his  second  visit  to  Boston,  Mr. 
Lee  was  invited  to  preach  in  Cambridge.  Some  students  heard  of  it,  and,  learning 
where  his  horse  was  stabled,  led  the  animal  out  and  tools  him  through  the  old  college 
building,  in  at  one  door  and  out  at  another,  saying;  "  The  Methodist  preacher's 
horse  shall  go  through  college,  if  his  master  hasn't."  The  noble  animal  was  doubt- 
less as  much  improved  by  the  process  as  many  of  his  biped  successors  have  been. 


WILBUK  FISK,  D.D. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Wednesday  Afternoon. 

Hon.  Chas.  E.  Kiimball  in  the  chair. 
Hon.  Chas.  E.  Kimball  said:     "We  will  ask  the 
Convention  to  sing  the  last  hymn,  No.  15,  — 

"  '  I  love  Thy  kingdom,  Lord.'  " 

After  the  singing  the  Chairman  invited  the  Rev. 
'  Dr.  N.  D.  George  to  offer  prayer. 

After  prayer,  the  Chairman  said  :  "  Brethren  and 
friends  of  the  Convention  :  I  attribute  the  pleasure  I 
have  this  afternoon  in  welcoming  you  to  this  gather- 
ing to  the  fact  that  I  have  my  dwelling-place  in  a 
city  preeminent  in  Methodism.  We  were  told  last 
evening  that  a  certain  young  man  drifted  about  the 
world  somewhere,  at  some  time,  and  crossed  the  path 
of  Jesse  Lee,  and  invited  him  to  Massachusetts. 
And  our  good  brother  told  us  that,  unfortunately, 
the  name  of  that  young  man  had  dropped  into 
oblivion.  I  am  glad  that  that  name  has  7iot  dropped 
into  oblivion,  but  is  recorded  in  the  chronicles  of 
liynn  Methodism,  and  I  am  happy  to  give  the  name 
of  Benjamin  Jackson,  of  Lynn,  Mass. 

"And  as  we  gather  this  afternoon  around  this 
camp-fire  of  New  England  Methodists,  if  there  glows 
in  our  hearts  something  of  exultation  over  what  our 

[99] 


100  CENTENNIAL  OF 

(leiionniiaHon  has  achieved,  remember  that  it  is  not 
altogether  for  wliat  we  have  achieved,  but  for  what 
we  are  going  to  achieve.  Every  church,  of  course, 
has  its  history.  It  is  a  maker  of  history,  and  that 
history  is  a  divine  inheritance.  All  personal  char- 
acter is  wrought  out  and  strengthened  and  developed 
by  trial,  by  antagonism.  The  Church  of  Christ  has 
had  its  trial.  The  Methodist  Church  has  had  its 
antagonisms,  antagonisms  all  the  way  along,  sancti- 
fied by  pain,  hallowed  by  toil  and  weariness.  But,  if 
she  has  walked  in  the  valley  of  tears  and  dwelt  in 
the  valley  of  humiliation,  she  has  stood  likewise  on 
the  Mount  of  Transfiguration,  and  walked  under  the 
eternal  sunshine  of  the  beatitudes.  Her  workmen 
have  fallen,  one  by  one,  as  the  grain  goes  down  before 
the  reaper,  but  tlie  Church  lives  on,  glorious  in  her 
history.  The  silent  years  are  working  it  out.  A 
solitary  itinerant  no  longer  gathers  his  congregation 
under  the  spreading  branches  of  a  tree  on  Boston 
Common,  or  in  an  unfurnished  barn  in  the  city  of 
Lynn.  To-day  the  Church's  bells  are  ringing  around 
the  globe,  and  her  itinerants  are  found  wherever  the 
foot-tread  of  civilization  is  heard,  or  wherever  the 
sail  of  commerce  has  winged  its  way.  We  read  the 
statement  that  there  is  ever  the  problem  how  to 
vitalize,  with  connexional  vitality,  the  extremities  of 
the  national  domain.  All  civil  institutions  are 
strongest  at  their  center,  and  weakest  as  we  work 
toward  the  outer  rim  of  the  circle.  Methodism  has 
no  extremities.  It  is  all  center ;  as  vital  out  on  the 
banks  of  the  Ganges  as  on  the  shores  of  the  Kenue- 


NEW  ENGLAND    METHODISM.  101 

bee  ;  as  vital  out  on  the  plains  of  Italy  as  on  our 
New  Hampshire  hills.  Never  was  the  Methodist 
Church  stronger  than  to-clay.  Never  was  it  better 
equipped  for  the  great  work  it  has  in  hand  than  now. 
Never  was  it  in  greater  peril.  The  transition  from 
poverty  to  affluence,  from  weakness  to  strength,  has 
been  a  wondrous  transition.  But  wondrous  tran- 
sitions are  dangerous,  and  great  opportunities  are 
always  girded  with  great  responsibilities  aud  perils. 
She  stands  erect  to-day,  one  of  the  mighty  forces  of 
the  world,  a  stupendous  factor  among  the  forces  of 
man.  God  has  given  to  her  the  preeminence  of 
leadership.  Millions  bow  at  her  altars.  Thousands 
shout  her  acclaims.  Wealth  flows  into  her  treasuries. 
And  the  great  tides  of  influence  that  sweep  up  and 
down  the  land  measure  themselves  along  her  side. 
Men  of  strength  and  power,  from  her  communion,  fill 
the  places  of  power  in  the  world.  She  stands  to-day 
a  mighty  Colossus,  stretching  from  continent  to  con- 
tinent, with  one  foot  planted  on  the  Orient  and  the 
other  on  the  Occident.  The  day  of  her  poverty  has 
gone  by.  But  it  is  no  boasting  when,  standing  here 
on  this  platform,  we  declare  that,  in  this  magnificent 
result,  it  has  been  New  England  Methodism  that  has 
done  as  much  as  the  Methodism  of  any  other  part  of 
this  broad  earth.  Will  she  be  true  to  her  mission  ? 
That  is  the  problem  for  us,  brethren.  We  become 
gloriously  enthusiastic  over  what  we  have  done. 
God  be  praised !  No  one  appreciates  the  glory  of  her 
accomplishments  more  than  the  speaker.  But,  while 
we  look  at  the  rays  of  sunlight  and  glory  that  beam 


102  CENTENNIAL   OP 

upon  her  past,  we  long  in  our  hearts  to  look  out  into 
the  coming  years  and  see  what  we  shall  be.  Will  the 
rarefied  atmosphere  of  this  high  elevation  dampen 
her  ardor  for  a  consecrated  life  ?  Will  the  plaudits 
of  the  multitude,  that  ring  out  on  the  air  for  her 
glory  and  her  achievements,  weaken  the  beatings  of 
our  hearts  for  the  great  humanity  that  is  crying  for 
her?  Will  the  glory  which  lies  along  the  track  of 
the  hundred  years  we  celebrate  to-day  atone  for  the 
magnificent  work  it  must  do  for  to-morrow?  Will 
its  great  opportunities  be  but  a  battle-field  for  what 
has  been  called  'Ecclesiastical  Polities'?  Will  the 
cry  that  comes  up  from  our  cities,  day  after  day  and 
year  after  year,  of  the  great  tide  that  sweeps  through 
it,  —  will  that  cry  catch  her  ear,  and  now,  in  her 
loftiest  height,  will  she  kneel  down  by  lowly  altars 
and  throw  her  great  arms  around  the  suffering,  and 
will  she  listen  to  the  cry  for  help  ?  If  so,  then  all 
glory  to  God.  And  such  I  think  it  will  be.  The 
Methodist  Church  must  be  a  consecrated  church  ;  and 
it  can  be  no  other.  Its  whole  ecclesiastical  polity  is 
founded  upon  this  idea,  and  it  can  be  worked  by  no 
other  church  than  a  consecrated  church.  Men  of 
affairs  must  consecrate  some  of  their  busy  hours  to 
its  service ;  meu  of  wealth  their  money  ;  and  con- 
scientious, godly  women  raise  no  standard  of  revolt 
over  fancied  grievances,  let  them  have  such  sugges- 
tions from  wherever  they  may. 

"  A  hundred  3-ears,  brethren,  lie  behind  us.  They 
are  secure.  Before  us  lie  possibilities  no  sage  can 
horoscope.     We  are  being  pressed  by  the  momentum 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  103 

of  a  century  on  toward  this  Centennial,  that  we  make 
it  an  occasion  of  high  resolves.  And,  as  we  march 
down  the  line  of  this  second  century,  in  the  advance 
of  this  great  Methodist  host,  floating  high  above  all 
earthly  ambitions,  principalities,  and  powers,  shall 
wave  the  crimson  banner  of  our  Christ.  And  be- 
neath that  banner  we  will  write  the  old  inscription, 
'In  Hoc  Signo  Vinces.'  And,  as  the  old  Cartha- 
ginian general  took  his  infant  son,  and,  kneeling  at 
the  altar  of  his  gods,  make  him  swear  eternal  enmity 
to  the  Romans,  so  we,  kneeling  around  our  sacra- 
mental altar,  will  swear  for  the  time  to  come  in- 
creased loyalty  to  our  Christ,  and  pledge  anew  at 
that  altar  our  '  lives,  our  fortunes,  and  our  sacred 
honor.'  Thus  doing,  Methodism  shall  roll  on,  as  the 
circling  years  come  and  go,  and  these  hands  of  ours 
become  pulseless  and  still,  and  out  of  these  hands 
shall  fall  the  standard  borne  so  grandly  before  God 
and  man,  out  of  these  hands  shall  fall  that  standard, 
but  our  children  and  our  children's  children  shall 
gather  up  that  standard  again,  and  bear  it  on,  and  on, 
and  on,  and,  if  it  be  God's  will,  by  and  by,  you  and  I 
will  look  down  from  the  battlements  of  the  celestial 
city  while  they  celebrate  the  second  Centennial. 
And  while  we  look,  we  will  join  with  them  in  that 
anthem  that  has  been  ringing  through  the  ages : 
'  Unto  him  that  loved  us,  and  gave  himself  for  us, 
and  has  washed  us  in  his  own  blood,  and  has  made  us 
kings  and  priests  unto  our  God,  unto  him  be  glory 
and  honor  and  dominion,  forever  and  ever,  amen  ! ' 
"  But  I  must  not  weary  you.     I  am  here  simply  as 


104  CENTENNIAL   OF 

a  herald  to  proclaim  the  coming  of  those  who  shall 
speak  to  you  with  more  eloquent  lips  than  mine,  of 
those  great  institutions  of  our  Methodism.  And  I 
have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  the  Rev.  C. 
A.  Plumer,  who  speaks  to  us  of  '  Methodism  in  Coun- 
try Towns.'  " 

Rev.  Dr.  C.  S.  Rogers  said :  "  We  have  just  heard 
that  Brother  Plumer  cannot  be  with  us  this  afternoon, 
and  so  the  next  speaker  on  the  program  will  take  his 
place." 

The  Chairman  said  :  "  You  have  heard  the  notifi- 
cation from  Dr.  Rogers  that  Brother  Plumer  cannot 
be  present.  The  next  exercise  on  the  program  is 
'  The  Episcopal  Element  in  Methodism.'  There  is 
nothing  that  has  ever  demonstrated  the  self-denial  of 
our  Methodist  clergy  like  their  willingness  to  acce])t 
this  hard  position  ;  nothing.  And  now  Dr.  Chad- 
bourne,  who  is  fully  familiar  with  all  these  methods, 
will  speak  to  you  upon  this  question  :  '  The  Episco- 
pal Element  in  Methodism.'  " 

Dr.  Chadbourne  said :  "In  treating  of  the  Episco- 
pal Element  in  Methodism,  my  purpose  is  only  to 
speak  of  it  as  the  form  of  church  government  which 
was  originally  adopted  b}^  and  has,  up  to  this  time, 
prevailed  in  that  body,  and  to  point  out  some  of  its 
advantages  as  illustrated  in  Methodist  history.  The 
brref  time  allotted  me  will  not  allow  me  to  enter  into 
a  discussion  and  defence  of  the  Episcopacy  in  the 
form  in  which  it  prevails  among  us,  or  to  array  argu- 
ments in  its  behalf  from  scriptural  and  historical 
standpoints.     Nor,    indeed,    is   an  effort  of   this  sort 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  105 

necessary.  All  questions  of  this  character  have  been 
thoroughly  discussed  and  fully  and  permanently 
settled  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  great  majority, 
if  not  the  whole  of  our  Methodist  Episcopal  body. 
We  believe  it  to  be  entirely  in  harmony  in  all  its 
parts,  with  the  New  Testament,  and  with  the  early 
history  of  the  Christian  Church.  And  we  know  very 
well  that,  as  a  system  of  church  government,  it  can 
show  results  inferior  to  none,  if  not  superior  to  any 
that  the  world  has  ever  shown.  Therefore  it  needs 
no  vindication  from  us ;  its  own  history  is  its  best 
vindication.  For,  to  my  own  mind,  the  proposition 
seems  perfectly  evident  that,  in  accounting  for  the 
phenomenal  growth  and  progress  which  have  attended 
American  Methodism  during  a  little  more  than  a 
century  of  its  existence,  we  must  refer  to  its  form  of 
church  government  as  one  of  the  chief  causes  which 
have  contributed  thereto.  Other  features  and  ele- 
ments peculiar  to  our  ecclesiastical  body  must  doubt- 
less be  counted  in  as  important  factors  in  the  solution 
of  this  interesting  problem,  but  this  one  should 
rightly  be  assigned  a  front  rank.  I  shall,  therefore, 
call  attention  to  the  Episcopal  Element  in  its  broad- 
est and  truest  sense,  as  it  obtains  among  us,  and  en- 
deavor to  point  out  some  of  its  advantages  as  seen  in 
the  century  of  our  history. 

"What,  then,  are  we  to  understand  by  the  term 
'Episcopal  Element'?  We  understand  it  as  relat- 
ing to  the  form  of  government  under  which  the 
ecclesiastical  body  exists.  No  church  can  exist,  none 
has   ever  long   existed,   without  some   government. 


106  CENTEN]S'IAL  OF 

Of  the  forms  most  known  and  adopted  by  the  great 
relio-ious  bodies  of  the  world,  three  liave  held  princi- 
pal  places.  These  are  the  Independent,  or  Congre- 
gational, the  Episcopal,  and  the  Presbyterian ;  and 
between  these  there  are  distinctions  of  a  very  marked 
character.  The  Congregational  form  holds  to 
o-overnment  directly  by  members  of  the  Chnrch  ;  the 
Presbyterians  to  a  government  by  a  board  of  elders 
or  presbyters  ;  and  the  Episcopal  to  government  by 
or  through  Bishops. 

"  Which  of  these  forms  of  government  has  most  of 
authority  and  sanction  from  the  New  Testament,  is  a 
question  which  all  the  bodies  have  largely  discussed, 
and  each  has  settled  satisfactorily  to  itself.  Tlie 
best  authorities,  however,  are  agreed  that  no  specific 
form  of  church  government  is  prescribed  in  the 
Scriptures  ;  that,  as  one  of  tliem  states  it,  '  The 
Almighty  Father  has  not  prescribed  any  particular 
form  of  ecclesiastical  polity  as  absolutely  necessary 
to  the  attainment  of  eternal  happiness.'  'The 
Gospel  only  lays  down  general  principles,  and  leaves 
the  application  of  them  to  men  as  free  agents.' 
Therefore  it  has  come  to  be  an  established  principle 
with  most  of  them,  except  the  Roman  Catholics  and 
the  Higli  Church  party  of  the  Episcopalians,  that  the 
form  of  government  is  with  each  body  a  question 
only  of  expediency,  and  so  each  is  at  liberty  to  choose 
that  which  it  judges  to  be  best. 

"  Of  these  forms  of  government  Mr.  Wesley  selected 
for  adoption  by  his  societies  in  America  the  Episco- 
pal, and  so  to-day  the  great  body  of  his  followers  on 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  107 

this  continent  constitute  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Cliurch.  A  careful  inquiry  into  the  meaning  of  this 
term  Episcopal,  taken  in  its  strictest  and  most  accu- 
rate sense,  may  show  us  both  that  the  Episcopal 
Element  prevails  very  much  more  extensively  among 
us  than  some  have  been  wont  to  suppose,  and  that  to 
this  we  are  far  more  indebted  for  the  efficiency  and 
success  of  our  church  polity  than  they  have 
imagined. 

"  Tlie  root  idea  of  the  word  is  that  of  oversight  or 
superintendence,  and  so  the  Episcopos  or  Bishop  is 
he  to  whom  has  been  committed  the  office  and  duty 
of  overseeing  or  superintending  the  affairs  of  a 
religious  body,  having  entrusted  to  him  a  definite 
degree  of  authority  and  power  for  the  direction  and 
control  of  those  affairs. 

"  I  shall  endeavor  to  show  that  this  Episcopal 
Element,  as  thus  defined,  inheres  in  three  offices  in 
our  Church  ;  in  its  Bishops,  its  Presiding  Elders,  and 
in  its  Pastors. 

'''■First.  In  its  Bishops.  The  office  of  Bishop  in 
Methodism  is  different  from  the  office  in  every  other 
religious  system.  First ;  It  differs  in  its  repudiation 
of  the  high  Episcopal  claim  that  the  order  of  Bishops 
takes  the  place  of  the  Apostles  in  the  Christian 
Church,  by  direct  divine  appointment ;  that,  therefore, 
the  Bishops  are  the  successors  of  the  Apostles,  and  are 
by  divine  right  the  head  of  the  Church,  and  that 
they  are  the  medium  through  which,  in  all  time  to 
come,  the  Holy  Ghost  must  be  transmitted  to  the 
Church.     We  hold  this  claim  to  be  a  carnal  perver- 


108  CENTENNIAL  OF 

sion  of  tlie  true  idea  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  a 
great  corruption  of  the  Christian  system.  With 
John  Wesley  we  pronounce  it  '  a  fable  which  no 
man  ever  did  or  ever  can  prove,'  and  believe  it  to  be 
what  one  has  declared  it,  '  The  origin  of  tlie  whole 
system  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  ;  the  germ 
from  which  sprang  the  popery  of    the    Daik    Ages.' 

"  We  turn  from  this  fable  of  the  apostolical  succes- 
sion to  the  episcopacy  which  we  have  received  from 
Wesley,  and  which,  we  are  fully  persuaded,  is  much 
nearer  the  apostolic  model.  Rejecting  the  High 
Church  tlieory  tliat  there  are  three  orders  in  the 
Christian  ministr}^  we  maintain  that  there  are  but 
two,  elders  or  presbyters,  and  deacons.  From  among 
these  presbyters  certain  ones  are  chosen  to  oversee  or 
superintend  tlie  Church,  and  these  we  call  bishops 
or  superintendents.  They  are  not  above  the  other 
presbyters  in  order,  but  are  above  them  in  office, 
having  devolved  upon  them  by  ecclesiastical  and 
human  right  —  not  by  divine  right — certain  functions 
which  the  others  may  not  perform.  Therefore  the 
office  is  simply  an  ecclesiastical  one,  with  well-defined 
duties  and  powers,  for  the  performance  and  exercise 
of  which  the  incumbent  is  responsible  to  the  body 
that  created  him,  —  the  General  Conference. 

"  Second  ;  The  office  of  Bishop  in  Methodism  differs 
from  the  office  in  other  churches  in  that  it  is  not 
diocesan,  but  is  general  and  itinerant.  Instead  of 
being  confined  to  a  city  or  district,  and  so  having  the 
oversight  of  comparatively  few  churches,  the  IVIetlio- 
dist     Bishop     must     '  travel    at    large,'    and     have 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  109 

oversight  of  churches,  it  may  be,  along  a  continent, 
or  of  churches  on  both  continents  of  the  world. 
And  this  itinerant  episcopacy  seems  to  us  far  nearer 
the  apostolic  model  than  is  the  diocesan. 

'•'■Second.  The  Episcopal  Element  inheres  in  the 
Presiding  Elder.  This  officer  has  sometimes  been 
called  a  sub-bishop,  and  a  little  inquiry  into  the 
functions  of  his  office  will  show  that  the  term  is  not 
misapplied.  The  duties  devolving  upon  him  are, 
many  of  them,  precisely  similar  to  those  which  the 
Bishop  is  called  upon  to  discharge,  and,  like  those  of 
the  Bishop,  all  pertaining  to  the  superintendence  and 
control  of  the  affairs  of  the  Church.  He  must  travel 
among  the  churches  of  his  District,  visiting  all  of  them, 
and  holding  Conferences  with  them  a  stated  number 
of  times  in  each  year ;  in  the  absence  of  the  Bishop 
—  and  the  Bishop  is  usually  present  in  each  Confer- 
ence but  a  few  days  in  the  year — he  must  take 
charge  of  all  the  Elders,  Deacons,  and  Travelling  and 
Local  Preachers  and  Exhorters  in  his  District.  In 
the  intervals  of  Conference  he  may  change,  receive, 
and  suspend  preachers,  if  the  Bishop  be  absent ;  he 
must  hear  complaints,  conduct  trials,  give  and  renew 
licenses  to  preach ;  he  must  oversee,  direct,  and  pro- 
mote all  the  temporal  and  spiritual  interests  of  the 
churches  and  guard  well  the  rights  of  the  Church  in 
its  church  property.  He  must  give  attention  to 
church  benevolences  and  collections,  and  see  to  all 
the  disciplinary  matters  in  his  District.  And  last, 
but  not  least,  he  must  practically  make  most  of  the 
appointments,  for  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  Bishop 


110  CENTENNIAL  OF 

must  depend  mainly  upon  the  knowledge  and  judg- 
ment of  these  men  in  assigning  the  preachers  to  their 
stations.  These  have  all  the  knowledge  of  the  men 
and  the  churches,  for  they  are  constantly  among 
them ;  the  Bishop  has  little,  and  in  many  cases  none. 
Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  office  is,  indeed,  one  of 
great  responsibility  and  far-reaching  influence,  and 
he  who  holds  it  is  an  episcopal  officer  in  the  truest 
sense  of  the  word.  He  has  not  devolved  upon  him 
all  the  duties  of  an  Episcopos,  or  Bishop,  but  he  does 
have  some  of  the  most  weighty  and  responsible.  The 
Episcopal  Element  is  present  in  large  measure  in 
tliis  office,  and  makes  itself  powerfully  felt  in  the 
affairs  and  interests  of  the  Church. 

'■'-Third.  The  Episcopal  Element  is  present  in  the 
preacher,  or  in  the  Pastor  of  the  Church.  As  the 
Bishop,  in  order  an  Elder  like  all  the  other  Elders  of 
the  Church,  has  oversight  of  entire  Conferences,  with 
authority  conferred  on  him  to  do  what  no  other  Elder 
may  do  among  them ;  as  the  Presiding  Elder,  not  dif- 
fering in  order  from  the  Elders  in  the  pastorate,  has 
oversight  of  a  District,  and  within  that  jurisdiction 
may  do  what  no  other  Elder,  and  not  even  a  Bisliop, 
can  do  ;  so  also  the  Pastor  has  oversight  and  superin- 
tendence of  a  congregation,  and  has  power  to  do  there 
what  no  other  may  do,  not  even  a  Bishop  or  Presid- 
ing Elder.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  commits 
to  its  Pastors  a  larger  measure  of  authority  and  power 
than  almost  any  other  Protestant  body.  It  must  be 
confessed  that  the  trust  is  very  great ;  to  some,  indeed, 
it  seems  too  great.      In  his   own  church,  he  alone 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  Ill 

may  receive  and  dismiss  members  ;  he  alone  appoint 
leaders  of  classes;  lie  alone  nominate  stewards  and 
trustees ;  his  consent  must  be  had  for  the  appointment 
of  teachers  in  Sunday-schools ;  in  short,  his  presence 
and  authority  are  felt  and  acknowledged  everywhere 
in  the  local  church.  None  can  get  into  the  church, 
and  none  can  get  out  of  it,  without  his  approval.  No 
officer  can  be  chosen  without  his  voice  gives  consent. 
What  other  Protestant  Church  puts  such  prerogatives 
on  its  Pastors  ?  If  the  episcopal,  the  superintending 
element,  is  not  present  in  his  office,  then  surely  it  is 
not  in  any  office  among  us. 

"Thus  it  will  be  seen,  taking  the  term  Bishop,  Epis- 
copos,  in  its  strict,  its  accurate  sense,  we  have  three 
grades  of  the  office  among  us.  The  Episcopal  Ele- 
ment prevails  among  all  Elders  in  service,  —  Bish- 
ops, Presiding  Elders,  and  Pastors.  The  difference 
between  them  is  rather  one  of  degree  than  of  kind. 
They  are  all  overseers  of  the  Church  of  God,  pastors 
of  the  flock  of  Christ. 

"  The  duties  belonging  to  each  differ  in  essential 
particulars,  but  all  tend  to  one  end,  the  progress  and 
welfare  of  the  Church  and  the  salvation  of  men.  ' 

"  In  studying  this  feature  of  our  Methodism,  and 
observing  its  practical  workings,  we  must  be  impressed 
with  two  or  three  noteworthy  facts. 

"  First ;  We  must  confess  that  it  is  not  a  demo- 
cratic feature ;  it  is  not  specially  in  harmony  with 
republican  and  representative  ideas  and  institutions. 
It  places  in  the  hands  of  each  of  these  men  an  almost 
or  quite  autocratic  power ;  it  makes  him  practically 


112  CENTENNIAL  OF 

a  ruler  over  Lis  brethren.  The  Bishop  can  do  abQiit 
as  he  will  with  preachers  and  churches  ;  they  can 
remonstrate ;  they  can  complain  ;  and  that  is  about 
all.  Unless  illegal,  unconstitutional  action  can  be 
shown,  there  is  no  redress  for  them  in  any  case, 
except  at  his  pleasure.  The  same  is  true,  though  in 
less  degree,  of  the  Presiding  Elder,  and  also  of  the 
Pastor.  From  their  decisions  and  acts  there  is  no 
appeal  save  the  appeal  to  ecclesiastical  law.  And  either 
of  these  officers  may  be  very  arbitrar}^ ;  he  may  be  wil- 
ful and  unreasonable  ;  in  some  cases  it  is  possible  for 
him  to  be  wrong,  and  yet  not  infringe  upon  the  con- 
fines of  law.  The  opinions  of  his  brethren,  the  dic- 
tates of  generosity,  of  brotherly  kindness,  nay,  even 
of  righteousness,  may  condemn  some  act,  but  the 
law  will  not.  And  this  feature  of  our  economy, 
this  putting  so  much  power  on  one  man,  as  is  well 
known,  has  been  urged  as  an  objection  to  our  polity, 
and  this  sometimes  by  those  of  our  own  household. 
We  have  heard  of  remonstrance,  protest,  and  occa- 
sionally, though  rarely,  of  rebellion.  In  reply  to 
all  such  objections,  we  offer  two  weighty  facts : 
The  abuse  of  this  great  trust  has  been  so  rare 
in  all  our  history  as  to  be  almost  insignificant,  to 
count  for  nothing  as  an  objection  to  the  system. 

"  How  often  has  it  been  heard  that  a  Bishop  has 
wrongfully  exercised  his  power  in  dealing  with  min- 
isters and  churches  ?  That  he  has  done  what  he  man- 
ifestly ought  not  to  have  done?  Consider  how 
often,  and  under  what  different  circumstances,  these 
men    must    exercise    the    power    given    them,   and 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  113 

then  wonder,  not  that  they  occasionally  seem  to  mis- 
take duty,  or  even  to  fail  as  to  what  is  riglit,  but 
that  they,  in  human  infirmity,  do  not  oftener  do  it. 

"We  may  rightfully,  as  we  do,  boast  of  the  record 
of  our  Chief  Pastors  in  this  particular.  It  affords  a 
most  striking  example  of  the  grace  of  God  in  men, 
as  well  as  of  integrity,  usefulness,  and  good  judg- 
ment. 

"■  And  these  statements  apply  with  quite  equal  perti- 
nency to  Presiding  Elders  and  Pastors.  We  do  not 
affirm  that  they  never  use  their  power  in  an  injudicious, 
or  even  in  a  wrong  way.  But  we  do  affirm  that,  take 
them  together,  such  offences  occur  so  seldom  as  to 
furnish  no  good  argument  against  our  system.  The 
failures  all  around  are  so  rare  as  to  prove  that  this 
power,  though  great,  is  wisely  and  safely  lodged 
where  it  is.  The  men  liolding  it  have  shown  them- 
selves worthy  of  it  for  a  hundred  years,  and  will 
no  doubt  maintain  the  record  in  the  years  to  come. 

"  Our  second  answer  to  those  who  object  to  this 
system  is  that  it  has  stood  the  best  of  all  tests,  it  has 
proved  itself  a  success.  On  this  point  I  suppose 
little  may  be  said,  for  the  history  of  our  Church  is 
behind  us,  and  to  that  only  need  we  appeal.  No  one 
can  doubt  that  the  government,  the  polity  of  a 
church,  must  be  a  powerfully  determining  factor  in 
the  matter  of  its  success  or  failure  in  attaining 
the  objects  of  its  existence.  Methodism  claims  the 
best  form  of  church  government  in  existence,  and  in 
support  of   its  claims    points   confidently  to  results. 

"  If  the  Christian  Church  is  in  this  world  to  save 


114  CENTENNIAL   OF 

tlie  world,  to  build  up  tlie  Kiugdom  of  God  in  it, 
to  scatter  gospel  light  and  blessing,  then  we  claim 
that  our  own  branch  of  it  is  answering,  has  answered, 
that  end  in  a  most  wonderful  manner.  And  the 
church  polity  which  has  helped  to  such  results  must 
be  a  good  polity.  Thorough  organization  and  cen- 
tralizing of  power: — all  experience  proves  tliat  these 
are  elements  of  success  in  attaining  the  end  sought. 
In  the  Church  of  God,  and  under  the  direction  of 
godly  men,  they  furnish  the  most  efficient,  the  most 
successful  polity  the  world  has  known.  Let  the 
many,  let  all,  have  a  voice  in  framing  constitu- 
tions and  in  making  laws,  either  directly  or  by  rep- 
resentatives. Then  let  the  power  to  carry  out  the 
provisions  of  constitution  and  laws  be  placed  in  the 
hand&  of  the  few,  and  you  have  the  best  government. 
This  ideal  government  is  realized  in  the  Ei)iscopal 
Element  in  the  polity  of  Methodism,  hence  the  best 
polity  and  the  consequent  best  results. 

"  This  polity  has  thus  far  made  our  Methodism  a 
unit;  a  unit  in  doctrine,  spirit,  purpose,  and  action. 
There  are  no  real  divisions  in  our  camp,  for  the 
reason  that  before  any  man  or  party  can  create  a  di- 
vision, the  Episcopal  Element  takes  them  and  gently 
puts  them  outside  the  camp.  So  that  while  others 
have  dissension,  disorder,  and  schism  in  doctrine  and 
in  'government,  Methodism  rejoices  in  peace  and 
harmony. 

"  ]\Iy  last  remark  is  that  a  system  that  can  array  in 
its  defence  such  a  history  and  such  results  demands 
and  deserves  very  conservative  treatment  at  the  hands 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  115 

of  its  friends.  We  should,  as  we  always  have  done, 
go  slowly  in  the  work  of  alterations  and  repairs,  lest 
we  find  that  the  alteration  has  improved  nothing,  and 
tlie  repair  is  a  loss  and  not  a  gain.  I  used  to  be  con- 
siderable of  a  radical,  but  observation  and  experience 
and  a  wider  knowledge  have  tamed  my  radicalism  not 
a  little.  I  am  not  half  as  much  inclined  to  the  office 
of  a  tinker  as  I  once  was.  It  has  fallen  into  disrepute 
with  me  not  a  little.  I  agree  with  the  statement  that 
the  argument,  '  Let  well  enough  alone,'  is  not,  in 
itself,  much  of  an  argument.  But  I  do  insist  that 
when  you  have  not  only  '  well  enough,'  but  also  the 
best  in  the  world,  prudence,  good  judgment,  and 
piety  would  dictate  that  you  be  very  sure  of  some- 
thing better  before  you  seek  a  change.  Above  all 
things  would  I  move  cautiously  in  tinkering  our 
Episcopal  polity  in  any  of  its  parts. 

"  The  profound  wisdom  of  Wesley  and  the  fathers 
seems  to  me  as  apparent  there  as  in  any  other  point 
in  our  history.  It  may  be  that  a  Bishop  elected  for  a 
term  of  years  would  be  better  than  one  elected  for 
life  ;  but  who  knows  that  he  would  ?  It  may  be  that 
a  Presiding  Elder  elected  by  his  Conference  would  be 
better  than  one  appointed  by  the  Bishop,  but  who  is 
sure  of  that  ?  And  it  may  be  that  it  would  be  better 
ill  our  churches  to  have  stewards  and  trustees  elected 
1  'y  the  church  members  than  to  be  nominated  by  the 
pastors  and  elected  in  the  Quarterly  Conferences,  as 
they  now  are,  but  who  could  guarantee  that  ?  There 
are  two  sides  to  all  these  grave  questions.  So  I  do 
not    say,   'Let  well  enough    alone,'  but   I    do   say, 


116  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Methodism  lias  the  best  on  earth.  Let  ns,  their, 
befoi'e  we  change,  be  quite  sure  of  something  better. 

"The  EjDiscopal  Element  has  proved  itself,  for  an  hun- 
dred years  and  more,  an  element  of  wisdom,  of  power, 
and  of  marvellous  success.  Why  should  not  love,  lo}^- 
alty,  and  devotion  to  it  produce  a  similar  record  for  the 
hundred  years  to  come?  Let  him  who  knows  give  us 
the  answer." 

"  The  Chairman  said,  "  The  congregation  will  join 
in  singing  the  twelfth  hymn  :  — 

/* '  Let  Zion's  watchmen  all  awake, 
And  take  the  alarm  they  give.'  " 

After  the  singing,  the  Chairman  said:  "  I  have  now 
the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  President  Raymond, 
who  will  speak  to  us  of  '  Young  Men  in  Training 
To-day  for  the  Methodism  of  To-morrow.'  " 

Dr.  B.  P.  Raymond  said:  "Every  age  must  be 
created  anew.  The  words  of  Christ  to  Nicodemus, 
'  Marvel  not  that  I  said  unto  thee.  Ye  must  be  born 
again,'  are  as  applicable  to  any  and  every  age  as  to 
any  and  every  man.  It  has  been  true  of  every  age 
that  has  preceded  ours  as  it  is  true  of  our  age,  and  it 
will  be  true  of  every  age  that  is  to  succeed  ours  until 
the  time  shall  come  when  He  whose  right  it  is  to 
reign  shall  have  subdued  all  things  unto  Himself, 
and  shall  reign  without  a  rival. 

"The  work  of  recreation  must  go  continually  on. 
The  cessation  of  that  work  for  a  single  instant  is  the 
beginning  of  the  processes  of  disintegration  and  death. 
When  those  processes  of  recreation  have  really  ceased 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  117 

in  any  given  body,  we  call  that  body  a  corpse,  and 
bury  it.  Even  the  solid  walls  of  the  city  of  Boston, 
if  left  without  repair  for  a  single  generation,  would 
fall  into  irretrievable  ruin.  The  city  would  become 
uninhabitable.  Not  a  new  shingle  upon  the  roof,  not 
a  new  light  in  the  window,  not  a  new  stone  in  the 
foundation,  not  a  new  timber  in  the  frame-work,  not 
a  new  nail,  no  improvement  in  sewerage  or  in  water- 
works, and  these  very  modern  improvements  designed 
to  make  our  lives  more  comfortable,  like  invisible 
and  intangible  spectres  would  glide  about  our  streets, 
and  breatli^  malaria,  fever,  and  death  into  every 
face.  Nay,  the  city  of  Boston,  with  its  solid  walls, 
cannot  stand  except  as  the  work  of  repair,  perpetual, 
incessant  recreation,  goes  steadily  forward. 

"  And  as  this  is  true  of  the  material  world  in  which 
we  live,  how  much  more  true  of  that  product  of  all 
of  these  forces  which  we  call  Christian  civilization. 
Sensitive  to  every  phase  of  thought,  to  every  motive 
that  plays  a  part  in  the  development  of  mankind, 
sensitive  to  all  the  subtle  influences  that  work  forever, 
both  in  matter  and  mind,  that  civilization  must  be 
perpetually,  incessantly  recreated. 

"  We  stand  to  speak  to-day  for  the  young  men  who 
are  in  training  for  the  work  of  Methodism  to-morrow. 
They  are  to  take  hold  of  the  forces  which  work  in 
this  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  carry 
them  up  into  more  potent  and  successful  results  in 
the  twentieth  century.  What  are  the  conditions 
under  which  they  are  to  make  their  preparation  for 
this  work? 


118  CENTENNIAL   OP 

"  It  would  be  a  difficult  thing  to  make  a  diagnosis 
of  the  diseases  that  prey  upon  the  body  politic  of  our 
time.  It  is  liot  to-day  with  the  intermittent  flusli  of 
abnormal  political  thoughts,  and  feverish  to-morrow 
with  the  excitement  of  some  ecclesiastical  controversy. 
These  cities,  the  ganglionic  centre  of  this  body,  are 
congested  to-day  with  the  bad  blood  of  anarchy,  and 
will  be  benumbed  to-morrow  by  the  breath  of  some 
gaunt  skepticism ;  and  the  following  day  greed,  and 
lust,  and  intemperance  will  riot  without  hindrance. 
It  is  not  easy  to  get  the  pulse  of  any  hour  and  locate 
the  threatening  malady.  As  a  reformer,  I  miglit  say, 
it  is  intemperance,  or  immigration  ;  as  an  educator, 
ignorance ;  as  a  theologian,  unbelief.  We  ought, 
however,  to  go  back  of  these  symptomatic  difficulties, 
and  find  the  radical  malady  upon  which  these  para- 
sites flourish. 

"  Suppose  I  were  to  say  that  the  trouble  with  our 
times  is  in  an  exaggerated  estimate  of  the  sensuous 
side  of  our  life.  Illustrations  of  this  exaggeration 
are  at  hand  in  every  department  of  life.  The  scien- 
tist fancies  he  can  exhaust  the  whole  meaning  of  life 
by  physical  formulae.  Mr.  Huxley  says,  '  I  protest 
that  if  some  great  power  would  agree  to  make  me 
alwa^'S  think  wliat  is  true  and  do  what  is  right,  on 
condition  of  my  being  turned  into  a  sort  of  clock  and 
wound  up  every  morning,  I  should  instantly  close 
with  the  offer.'  But  Mr.  Huxley,  the  clock,  is  Mr. 
Huxley  minus  all  that  constitutes  moral  character, 
all  that  makes  life  worth  living.  The  physiological 
psychologist,  whose  work  is  so  highly  esteemed  in  our 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  119 

day,  starting  with  the  wavelets  of  sound,  light,  etc., 
which  beat  upon  us,  carries  them  up  along  the  nerv- 
ous system  toward  the  brain,  and  when  he  has  reached 
that  gulf,  where  quivering  nerves  furnish  the  raw 
material  of  knowledge  to  a  knowing  subject,  that 
gulf  which  he  has  never  crossed,  with  his  scales  and 
physical  formulae,  he  proposes  to  explain  all  by  reduc- 
ing the  spiritual  reality  to  a  shadow,  which  is  allowed 
to  accompany  this  nervous  activity.  His  confidence 
in  tlie  sensuous  side  of  life  makes  it  equal  to  the 
work  to  be  done,  whatever  that  work  may  be. 

"  And  if  you  pass  to  tlie  field  of  politics,  the  politi- 
cian is  eaten  up  with  material  coiisiderations.  To  in- 
troduce an  ideal  that  is  high  and  holy,  commanding 
all  the  great  and  good  forces  that  work  on  earth,  into 
politics,  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  things  that  any 
body  of  statesmen  ever  undertook.  But  it  is  not  only 
true  of  politics.  This  is  the  time  in  which  we  glorifj^ 
ourselves,  and  that  justly ;  and  yet  it  is  too  true  that 
in  the  Church  there  is  an  exaggerated  estimate  of 
machinery,  an  exaggeiated  estimate  of  numbers,  an 
exaggerated  estimate  of  legislation,  an  exaggerated 
estimate  of  everything  but  the  spiritual  forces  that 
come  ever  from  God  and  are  invisible. 

"We  have  not  yet  fathomed  those  words  of  most 
profound  insight  which  the  Master  spoke  to  Thomas: 
'  Blessed  are  they  that  have  not  seen  and  yet  have  be- 
lieved ' ;  they  are  not  dependent  on  the  sense  of  touch, 
or  sense  of  sight,  or  the  sense  of  hearing,  but  who 
have  been  able,  because  of  spiritual  susceptibility 
to  that  which  is  high  and  holy,  to  substitute  insight 


120  CENTENNIAL  OF 

for  eyesight,  for  insight  is  only  another  term  to  set 
forth  the  liighest  exercise  of  faith  in  God's  world,  and 
His  purposes  in  this  world. 

"If,  then,  this  tendency,  fundamental  and  perpetual, 
is  showing  itself  in  the  various  lines  of  activity,  the 
work  of  the  young  men  now  in  training  for  the  work 
of  Methodism  to-morrow  is  to  turn  the  thoughts  and 
hearts  of  men  back  from  the  exaggerated  estimate  of 
the  sensuous,  which  easily  developes  into  the  sensual, 
toward  the  spiritual  and  eternal. 

"  There  are  many  surface  currents  which  seem  hos- 
tile to  the  spiritual  and  eternal ;  but  I  am  thoroughly 
confident  that,  underneath  these  surface  currents 
which  seem  to  run  in  every  conceivable  direction, 
there  are  fundamental  currents  that  are  continuous, 
right  on,  steadily  on  through  the  ages,  and  that  set 
toward  the  supernatural  and  the  divine.  There  is  a 
point  on  the  Mississippi  river,  near  the  city  of  Red 
Wing,  where  the  river  runs,  within  the  distance  of  a  few 
miles,  to  every  point  of  the  compass.  It  runs  north, 
south,  east,  or  west,  just  as  you  choose.  But  a  little 
higher  point  of  view  shows  this  majestic  river  sweep- 
ing steadily  on  from  St.  Paul  to  New  Orleans.  The 
current  is  from  the  north  to  the  south,  in  spite  of  all 
of  these  diversions.  So  it  seems  to  me  that  we  are  to 
come,  in  the  age  before  us,  to  such  an  appreciation  of 
these  deeper  currents  of  our  life  and  of  this  gospel, 
as  shall  leveal  the  infinite  God  in  all,  and  through 
all,  ruling  all. 

"  These  young  men  are  being  trained  in  an  environ- 
ment that  is  favorable  to  this  result.     Tiie  first  char- 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  l2l 

acteristic  of  that  environment,  which  I  shall  notice,  is 
that  it  is  intellectual.  The  atmosphere  is  charged 
with  intellectual  life,  and  every  question  that  comes 
before  us  is  being  treated,  and  is  to  be  treated,  with 
the  keenest  intellectual  analj-sis,  and  with  the  most 
profound  philosophical  insight.  Reflection  for  a  mo- 
ment, upon  the  condition  of  things  sixty  years  ago, 
will  reveal  what  I  mean.  We  then  had  only  one  or 
two  academies  in  these  New  England  States.  We  had 
not  a  single  college.  Sixty  years  ago,  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity was  founded,  and  we  began  our  work  in  liigher 
education.  And  during  these  sixty  years  you  know 
how  these  institutions  have  multiplied  all  over  the 
land.  I  need  not  stop  to  speak  of  this  or  that  institu- 
tion in  our  own  New  England  to-day.  Wesleyan 
University,  Boston  University,  and  the  preparatory 
schools  are  now  established.  B}^  these  agencies  now 
at  work  among  us,  we  are  preparing  a  body  of  men 
and  women,  —  thank  God !  —  a  body  of  men  and  women 
of  a  higher  type  of  intellectual  life  than  our  Church  has 
ever  yet  seen.  It  would  not  be  just  to  reflect  upon 
the  intellectual  life  of  the  fathers  who  laid  the  foun- 
dations of  this  work.  They  were  men  of  immense 
brain-power  and  will-power,  and  they  did  obtain  cul- 
ture and  training  by  the  very  circumstances  in  which 
they  were  placed.  They  did  as  every  man  who  grows 
must  do,  —  they  wrestled  with  the  profoundest  prob- 
lems that  have  ever  engaged  the  human  mind,  and  that 
is  the  reason  that  they  were  intellectual  giants.  But 
they  lacked  the  finish,  the  refinement,  the  accuracy  of 
scholarship  that  comes  from  our  age  and  from  the  de- 


122  CENTENNIAL  OF 

velopment  of  our  time.  Tliere  was  no  science.  Tlie 
whole  scientific  development  has  come  since  tliat 
time. 

"  The  highly  organized  system  of  training,  the 
multiplication  of  new  fields  of  thought,  the  appliances 
necessary  for  investigation  at  hand,  the  stimulous  of 
associations,  the  discipline  that  comes  from  a  daily 
tussle  with  the  problems  of  mathematics,  science, 
philosophy,  and  language,  all  conspire  to  give  us  a 
body  of  intellectual  men  and  women  unknown  to  us 
in  the  past.  In  his  answer  to  Strauss,  Ulrici  says: 
'  Ours  is  at  once  the  age  of  the  supremest  affluence  in 
questions  solved,  and  of  the  most  pressing  poverty  in 
questions  opened  and  unanswered.  A  question  set- 
tled is  a  question  planted,  and  green  young  questions 
spring  up  all  around  it.'  We  have  answered  many 
questions,  but  we  have  in  them  the  promise  of  thous- 
ands yet  to  be  answered.  They  Avill  be  developed  all 
the  more  surely  and  swiftly  because  we  are  saying  to 
these  young  men  and  women,  'Think,  think,  think!' 
The  world  is  full  of  interrogation  points.  We  face 
an  age  of  problems,  which  our  Church  has  never  yet 
clearly  seen,  and  the  multitudes  of  young  men  and 
women  now  being  trained  in  our  colleges,  must  con- 
tribute their  share  toward  the  settlement  of  these 
questions. 

"We  have  had  an  illustration  of  the  effect  of  this 
intense  intellectual  life,  when  turned  upon  the  New 
Testament.  Christian  Ferdinand  Baur,  the  founder 
of  the  famous  'Tubingen  School,'  announced  the 
startling  theory  that  the   Gosi)els  were  not  written 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  123 

until  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century.  This 
called  out  a  great  many  replies,  and  a  whole  gen- 
eration of  theologians  has  been  at  work  on  the 
problems  started  b}-  his  theory.  Prof.  Muir,  of  Bel- 
fast, sums  up  the  results  of  this  investigation  in  the 
following  table : 


T.           Volk-  Hilgen-  v-^ 
B^""^-      mar.      feld.    K^™" 

Renan. 

Schen- 
kel. 

"°"^- Weiss, 
manii. 

Meyer. 

Matt. 

130+105+70+    66. 

84 

70 

67        70 

60-70 

Mark. 

150+   73      81+  100 

76 

58 

78      69 

60-70 

Luke. 

150     100    100       90 

94 

80 

70+  80 

70-80 

John. 

160     155    130+130 

125 

120 

100-133      95 

80 

600  433  396  386   379   328    327  314    285 

"  It  is  seen  from  the  above  table  that  the  sum  of 
tlie  years  when  these  Gospels  are  supposed  to  have 
been  written,  has  been  steadily  reduced  from  600  to 
285.  This  result  comes,  for  the  most  part,  from  the 
discovery  of  documents  which  quoted  these  Gospels, 
documents  existing  earlier  than  the  time  assigned  by 
Baur  for  their  composition.  The  work  done  by  these 
scholars,  work  which  none  but  the  best  equipped 
scholars  could  have  done,  has  laid  firm  the  foundation 
for  our  faith  in  the  historical  trustworthiness  of  these 
Gospels. 

"  The  intellectual  life  of  our  Church  is  to  be  turned 
to  the  Bible  as  it  has  never  been  before  ;  and  the  Old 
Testament  question  will  undergo  the  same  test.  It 
is  bound  to  come.  It  is  here.  We  cannot  escape  it. 
We  do  not  wish  to  escape  it.  It  is  of  interest  to  us 
that  our  own  men  should  treat  these  questions :  or  are 
we  to  be  forever  dependent  upon   Germany  ?     I  re- 


124  CENTENNIAL   OF 

joice  in  the  work  whicli  Prof.  Mitchell  has  done,  and 
which  others  of  our  own  Church  are  with  him  to  do, 
on  these  Old  Testament  questions. 

"  Another  factor  in  the  environment  of  these  young 
men,  is  the  Ciiristian  atmosphere  that  permeates  this 
intellectual  life.  Our  schools  are  the  centres  of 
Christian  influence.  Christ  is  honored  there.  Re- 
pentance toward  God  and  faith  in  Him  are  empha- 
sized, and  I  dare  to  believe,  in  spite  of  all  advancement 
of  science,  yea,  rather  because  of  it,  will  continue  to 
be  emphasized  to  the  end. 

"  And  then  there  is  another  thing  that  is  to  occur. 
There  is  to  come  a  reaction,  and  that  speedily,  from 
the  materialistic  conclusions  of  scientific  theorists. 
For,  at  last,  every  theory  must  stand  two  tests  ;  the 
one  is  that  of  logical  analysis,  and  the  other  the  prac- 
tical test.  Mr.  Spencer's  '  Unknowable  '  can  stand 
neither.  In  its  agnostic  aspect  it  is  illogical,  and  in 
its  practical  results  it  will  be  found  a  failure.  It  will 
not  work.  Carry  it  either  into  the  pulpit  or  into  the 
home  where  the  father  reads  the  old  family  Bible  and 
bows  in  prayer  ;  teach  him  that  he  cannot  know  that 
God  is  either  intelligent  or  moral ;  that  he  can  know 
absolutely  nothing  about  Him  ;  and  he  will  rise  from 
that  altar  never  to  bow  again. 

"  Science  has  gone  so  far  that  it  must  go  farther, 
or  else  retreat.  The  harmony  and  unity  of  the 
forces  that  work  in  the  world  have  been  so  thoroughly 
demonstrated,  and  the  facts  announced  are  so  mar- 
vellous, that  the  next  step  will  surely  be  taken. 
Hear  Prof.  Asa  Gray,  as  he  tell  us  there  are  animal- 


NEW    ENGLAND    METHODISM. 


125 


culse  so  small  that  millions  of  them  would  not  make 
a  bulk  as  large  as  a  grain  of  sand.  And  yet  he  says 
that  each  one  of  these  creatures  has  a  perfect  loco- 
motive, a  perfect  respiratory,  and  a  perfect  circulatory 
apparatus.  Study  the  revelations  of  the  microscope 
and  of  the  telescope,  the  facts  of  this  wonderful 
world,  growing  more  wonderful  every  year  as  it 
sweeps  on  through  the  ages.  Believe  the  facts  dis- 
closed by  modern  science,  and  then  disbelieve  in  the 
immanent  God  if  you  can,  in  whom  '  we  live  and 
move  and  have  our  being  '  who  '  upholdeth  all  things 
by  the  word  of  his  power.' 

"  The  intellectual  life  of  our  time  is  sure  to 
flourish.  The  knowledge  of  God,  as  revealed  by 
Jesus  Christ,  must  keep  pace  with  it,  yielding  an 
ever  richer  Christian  experience.  The  reaction  from 
false  scientific  theories  is  sure  to  come.  Philosophy 
will  test  the  pre-supposition  which  underlies  all  scien- 
tific thought.  The  Spirit  of  God  has  come  to  abide, 
and,  as  it  has  sought  in  the  past  an  open  way  to  the 
hearts  of  men,  utilizing  even  the  gigantic  physical 
might  of  Samson,  and  the  brilliant  reign  of  a  Solomon, 
in  spite  of  his  sins,  so  that  Spirit  seeks  to-day  to 
subsidize  all  the  agencies  of  power,  and  to  fill  all  the 
channels  of  communication  among  men,  for  the 
upbuilding  of  the  kingdom,  which  shall  at  length 
enthrone  the  Lord  Jesus  as  King  of  Kings  and  Lord 
of  Lords." 

The  Chairman  said :  "  We  will  now  listen  to  a 
Poem  entitled  '  Jesse  Lee  and  the  Old  Elm,'  by  Rev. 
Dr.  George  Lansing    Taylor." 


126  GENTEN^'IAL   OF 

On  being   introduced   to    the    audience    Dr.   Tay- 
lor said :  — 

'•  Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  :  What  I  am 
to  liave  the  lionor  to  offer  to  you  upon  this  occasion 
is  not  an  ode,  a  sliort  poem  with  its  own  beginning, 
and  climax,  and  conclusion,  —  a  thing  complete  in 
itself;  it  is  an  extract  of  some  one  hundred  and 
eighty  lines  from  my  'Jesse  Lee  in  New  England,' 
Avhich  has  over  six  hundred  lines,  and  covers  the 
whole  work  of  Lee  in  New  England,  and  much  more. 
Li  the  full  poem  I  sketch  Lee's  first  sermons  at 
Norwalk,  New  Haven,  and  elsewhere  in  Connecticut, 
and  the  founding  of  his  first  three  churches  there,  at 
Stratfield,  Redding,  and  Ridgefield.  His  toils  and 
hardsliips  are  depicted.  His  entertainment  at  New 
Haven,  by  David  Beecher,  the  father  of  Lyman 
Beecher,  and  grandfather  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
and  his  influence  over  him  are  described,  with  his 
peculiar  genius.  The  story  finally  brings  Lee  to 
Providence ;  whence,  in  June  1790,  he  sets  out  for 
Boston,  and  there  our  extract  for  to-day  begins.  After 
we  leave  him  to-day,  the  poem  still  follows  his 
heroic  founding  of  Methodism  in  Maine,  Canada,  and 
his  labors  elsewhere,  till  his  death  ;  it  then  sketches  the 
organization  of  New  England  Methodism,  its  perse- 
cutions, its  heroes,  its  institutions,  and  the  vast  modern 
development  of  Methodism  in  New  England,  and  all 
over  the  country.  But  our  theme  to-day  is  the  found- 
ing of  Methodism  in  Boston  and  vicinity,  the  dramatic 
point  of  which  was  the  scene  under  the  Okl  Elm  on 
Boston  Common, 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  127 

"  Onward  then  to  classic  Boston,  wrapt  in  transcendental  mist, 
Kindled  by  a  loftier  vision,  speeds  the  great  evangelist. 
Boston  cries,  'Fanatic!  ranter!  wild,  illiterate  vagabond ! ' 
Faith,  above  the  scornful  present,  sees  the  future  bright  beyond. 
Here  Charles  Wesley,    glowing   Whitfield,  Boardman,   Black, 

and  Garretson, 
Erst  had  told  salvation's  story,  but  no  foot-hold  e'er  had  won; 
Welcome,  all,  as  Gospel  fishers,  filling  others'  creels  alone,  — 
Slighted,  shiumed,  decried,  rejected,  when  they  fished  to  fill 

their  own ! 
So  when  Lee,  avowed  a  founder,  came  to  plant,  and  build,  and 

stay, 
All  New  England's  pride  and  purpose  rose  to  hedge  and  wall 

his  way. 
Firm,  compact  as  Quincy  granite,   stood  the  marshalled  lines 

opposed ; 
Every  civic  hall  forbidden,  every  church  and  chapel  closed! 
Not  an  empty  store  or  dwelling,  court-house,   school-house, 

market-place, 
For  the  Methodist!    Ah,   what  a  contrast  with  New    Haven's 

cordial  grace ! 
And  with  Hartford's  ample  freedom,  where  her  State  House 

week  by  week. 
Gave  the  founder  and  his  helpers  audience,  leave,  and  law,  to 

speak. 
Then  on  Boston's  world-famed  Common,  lo!  the  preacher  took 

his  stand. 
Where  a  great  elm  reared    above  him  its  cathedral  arches 

grand, — 
Nature's  shrine,  where  erst  the  Aryan  breathed  his  prayer,  in 

pristine  yore. 
Ere  Jehovah's  pi'iest  the  Shemite,  brought  him  Heaven's  illu- 
mining lore; 
Aye,  and  still  earth's  grandest  temple,  where  th'  adoring  soul 

may  rise, 
Borne  o'er  leafy  domes  and  columns  to  communion  with  the 

skies. 
'Twas  July  the  tenth,  and  Sabbath,  and  the   sun  was  in  the 

west; 
All  the  world  stood  robed  in  emerald,  in  midsummer's  verdure 

drest. 


128  CENTENNIAL   OF 

Summer  winds,  with  breath  Aeolian  whispered  tliroiigh  the 

murmuring  trees, 
And  the  clover  blossoms  nodded  to  the  drone  of  bumble  bees. 
Falling  rose-leaves  in  the  door-yards  spread  pink  carpets  for  fair 

feet. 
And  the  birds  amid  the  shadows  warbled  pensively  and  sweet, 
All  the  abyss  of  liciuid  azure,  tremulous  with  quivering  light. 
Throbbed  with  rhythmic  palpitations,  vibrant  billows  of  delight. 
In  the  west  an  amber  ocean  on  to  porphyry  headlands  rolled, 
Where  the  simset's  slanting  javelins  tore  through  jasper,  sard, 

and  gold. 
Earth,  in  awe,  saw  heaven's  gates  open,  domes  and  arcades  shone 

out  clear. 
Bathed  in  splendor  from  the  flashings  of  the  White  Throne's 

photosphere. 
O'er  the  world  a  solemn  silence  hung,  like  heaven's  awaiting 

hush,  , 

While  the  angels'  harps  are  tuning,  ere  their  vesper  anthems 

gush. 
Six  o'clock  the  bells  are  chiming;  then  the  preacher,  from  his 

chair 
Steps  upon  a  plain,  strong  table,  set  to  form  his  pulpit  there. 
Through  the  shimmering  leaves  the  sunlight  sheds  its  luster 

o'er  his  form, 
Lighting  nobly  chiselled  features  with  a  radiance  clear  and 

warm. 
Every  pose  was  firm,  but  graceful,  like  the  elm's  majestic  curve, 
Force  in  every  look  and  movement,  faultless  taste,  and  steady 

nerve. 
Not  a  novice,  not  a  pedant,  not  a  mountebank  stood  there; 
Only  thirty-two,  but  veteran;  conquest  in  his  mien  and  air: 
Sergeant,  chaplain,  backwoods  preacher,  city  pastor,  orator,  wit, 
All  his  spirit  in  his  message,  all  his  carriage  gracious,  fit. 
Not  Saint  Paul,  on  Mars'   Hill  preaching,   all  Greece's  sages 

there  to  quiz, 
Platonist,    Stoic,  Epicurean,  keener  audience  had  than  his; 
Not  brave  Luthur  at  Worms'  Diet,  Bunyan  in  his  Bedford  jail, 
Wesley  on  his  father's   tombstone,   stouter  hearts,  that  less 

could  quail. 
Hark!  he  sings!     A  voice  melodious,  full  and  rich,  in  perfect 

tone, 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  129 

Fills  the  listening  grove  with  music,  like  a  cornet  played  alone. 
While  below  the  sweet-voiced  singer  lifts  his  plaintive,  pleading 

hymn, 
Organ  winds  prolong  the  anthem  through  green  arches,  vast 

and  dim, 
Till  the  robin  in  the  treetops,  trilling  forth  his  evening  lay, 
Halts  to  catch  the  nobler  lyric,  ere  its  echoes  float  away; 
'  Come,  ye  sinners,  poor  and  needy,  weak  and  wounded,  sick 

and  sore, 
Jesus  ready  stands  to  save  you,  full  of  pity,  love,  and  power '; 
•'Turn  to   the   Lord,   and    seek  salvation!'  swells  the  chorus, 

high  and  strong, 
Quickly  caught    up    and    reechoed    by  the    swiftly  gathering 

throng. 
Four,  at  first,  drew  near  in  wonder,  then  a  dozen,  then  a  score. 
Every  voice  repeats  that  chorus,  swells  its  volume  more  and 

more : 
'Turn  to  the  Lord  and  seek  salvation!'    soon    from  hundreds 

rose  the  strain, 
Echoed  back  by  fresher  hundreds,  till   the  green  vaults  rang 

again. 
Then  upon  his  borrowed  table,  reverently  the  preacher  knelt; 
Spread  his  hands  toward  heaven,  and  prayed  with  words  that 

breathed  and  soul  that  felt; 
Naught  was  there  of  form  or  prayer-book,  though    on  holy 

ground  he  trod,  — 
Just  a  man,  in  simple  manhood,  humbly  drawing  nigh  to  God, 
With  a  prayer  that  nearer  heaven  lifts  each  longing  soul  that 

heeds, 
Bears  to  God  in  supplication  every  burdened  spirit's  needs; 
Tells  the  common  wants  of  all  men  to  the  common  Faflier's 

love. 
Through  the  common  Saviour's  merit,  pleading  for  all  men 

above, 
With  the  Spirit's  intercession,  his  unuttered  cry  within, 
Man's  sublimest  priesthood,  wrestling  over  mortal  woe  and 

sin. 
Then  the  text,  from  pocket  Bible ;  then  the  sermon,  clear  and 

strong. 
Moves  with  native  grace  and  vigor  in  an  easy  flow  along. 


130  CENTENNIAL   OF 

Meek   the    i)roacher  stood,   but    mauly,   strong    and    shapely, 

straight  and  tall, 
With  a  dark  eye  like  an  eagle's,  and  a  voice  like  clarion  call, 
Peal  of  trumpet,  roll  of  thunder,  sob  of  night  winds  through  the 

pine. 
Best  of  all  the  Spirit's  unction  tuned  the  instrument  divine. 
Naught  knew  he  of  Greek  or  Latin,  Hebrew,  Chaldee,  Science, 

Art, 
But  the  Bible,  noblest  Classic !    Ah,  he  had  it  all  by  heart! 
Keen  old  Aristotle's  logic  in  his  saddle-bags,  too,  hung. 
And  his  mother's  Saxon-English  leapt  like  sword-blades  from 

his  tongue! 
Naught  of    'notes'    had  he,  though  hidden  'twixt  a  Bagster's 

lying  leaves. 
More  dishonest  than  frank    reading  which    no  auditor    de- 
ceives! — 
No  memoriter  reciting  sentences  rotund  and  neat, 
Palming  off  on  ears  untrained  a  rhetorician's  polished  cheat! 
Text  and  subject  well  digested,   plan  and  end    from  outset 

known, 
Diction  born  of  inspiration,  souls  the  prize,  and  souls  alone ! 
Such  the  style.     Armiuian  doctrine:  man's  free  will,  and  God's 

free  grace; 
Christ's  unlimited  atonement,  mercy  for  man's  fallen  race. 
Naught  of  stern  fore-ordination,  Calvin's   '  horrible  decree,' 
Naught  of  LTnitarian  Deism,  robbing  Christ  of  deity. 
Naught  of  Universalist  laxness,  sweeping  men  to  heaven  pell 

mell,  — 
With  its  Protestant  Purgatory,  and  its  ghastly  jests  at  hell;  — 
Naught    of    these  the    preacher  offered,  nor    the   '  Half-way 

Covenant's'  snare. 
Opening  wide  Christ's  Church  and  pulpit  to  sin's  uuregenerate 

heir; 
Not  Pelagian  self-salvation,  Antinomian  rashness  bold. 
Scorning  Right's  great  law  Jehovah  swears  shall  stand,  while 

heaven  grows  old; 
Not  the  furious  bigot,  raving  at  all  theories  save  one ; 
Not  th'  iconoclast,  denouncing  creeds    and  systems,  offering 

none ; 
Naught  of  all  these  in  this  preacher,  calm  and  reasonable,  but 

filled 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  l3l 

With  an  inward  glow  whose  fervor  every  hearer  caught  and 

thrilled! 
Sweet  and  cheering  was  the  message;  comfort,  hope,  encovir- 

agement;  , 

Love  divine  like  Noah's  rainbow  over  Justice's  deluge  bent; 
Calvary  over  Sinai  soaring;   '  It  is  finished  I  '    o'er  the  doom 
Of  lost  Eden;  and  o'er  death  the  Eesurrection  trumpet's  boom! 
Gracious  help  for  true  repentance,  none  shut  out  who  seek  and 

knock; 
Justification  by  faith  in  Christ  alone  the  sure  foundation  rock; 
Regeneration,  sanctification,  all  the  riches  of  God's  word, 
Opened    like  a  mighty  treasure;  all    the    preacher's   talents 

stirred ; 
Exegesis,  sound  but  simple;  statement,  ai-gument,  and  proof; 
Robust    logic,  keen    dissection,  close,   well-woven  warp    and 

woof; 
Satire,  all  pretense  to  puncture,  as  of  old  Elijah's  scoff 
Probed  the  howling  crew  of  Baal,  laughed  a  nation's  nightmare 

off! 
Understanding's    void    enlightened.    Reason's    rightful   reign 

restored ; 
Slumbering  conscience  roused  to  action,  pierced  as  by  a  flaming 

sword; 
Illustrations  swift  and  flashing,  images  of  beauty  rare. 
Pictures  flung  from  Fancy's  camera  on  the  canvas  of  the  air; 
Application  kind  but  searching;  strong  appeal,  emotion  warm. 
Unction  deep,  seraphic  fervor,  eloquence.the  heart  to  storm; 
All  awake,  and  all  in  action,  till  three  thousand  souls  aspire. 
As  the  new  evangel  o'er  them  sweeps  in  pentecostal  fire; 
Till  their  hearts  within  are  burning,  like  those  two,  who  by  the 

way 
Heard  the  Lord  expound  the  Scriptures  on  His  resurrection  day. 
Then  the  reverent  thousands  whisper,  wending  home  at  vesper 

chime: 
'  No  such  pi'eacher  in  New  England  have  we  heard  since  Whit- 
field's time! '  t 
'No  such  preacher!'  —  Yet,  like  Whitfield,    on     his    second 

voyage  repulsed. 
Shunned,  maglined,  while  church  and  college  sti'ife  and  heresy 

convulsed ; 


132  CENTENNIAL  OP 

So  'gainst  "Whitfield's  best  successor,  and  the  blessed  word  ho 

brought, 
Proud,  hard  Boston,  coldly  turning,  sets  her  Lord,  in  him,  at 

naught. 
Where  from  fair  Northampton  rising,  erst  the   '  Great  Awaken- 
ing' spread. 
Kindled  there  when  Edwards'   thunders  woke    the    spiritual 

dead; — 
Where,  'neath  Whitfield's,  Tennent's  whirlwinds,  scores   and 

hundreds  wept  and  prayed, 
Shaken    like    the    moaning   forest    by    the    summer    temi)est 

swayed;  — 
There,  a  short  half  century  later,  lo !    the  godly  Pilgrim  stock 
Changed   to  Sadducees  and  scoffers !  clay,  once  plastic  turned 

to  rock ! 
Not  Geneva's  rugged  dogma  here  withstood  the  truth,  alone; 
But  the  Christless  Unitarian  turned  the  Bread  of  Life  to  stone ; 
Stabbed  the  faith  our  Pilgrim  fathers  brought  to  Plymouth's 

wintry  shore;  — 
Half    a    century's  splendid    progress, —  fewer    churches    than 

before ! 
Long  o'er  Boston  raged  the  conflict;  Salem,  Portsmouth,  New- 

buryport, 
Charlestown,  Marblehead,  were  open,  bade  the  stranger  preach, 

exhort ; 
Twice  again  on  Boston  Common,  compact  thousands  gladly 

hung 
On  the  story  of  salvation,  sounded  from  his  tuneful  tongue. 
Still  the  wall  of  brass !  No  entrance  could  the  Methodist  find 

or  win. 
Till  a  warm  and  cheering  summons  came  from  hospitable  Lynn. 
Prosperous  there  dwelt  Benjamin  Johnson,  who,  God's  voice, 

five  years  before. 
Turned  Lee's  thoughts,  in  South  Carolina,  toward  New  Eng- 
land's rugged  shore; 
And  when  now  of  his  brave  battles,  conflicts,  toils,  rebuffs,  they 

heard, 
Straight  with  joy  they  sent  him  greeting,  sent  and  craved  from 

him  God's  word! 
liike  good  news  from  a  far  country,  water  to  a  soul  athirst, 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  133 

On  the  lone  and  lonely  toiler  such  a  gladsome  message  burst; 
Swift  he  flew  to  hearts  that  hailed  him  with   warm    hands 

and  tear-dewed  eyes, 
Hailed  and  heard,  revered  and  loved  him  as  an  angel  from  the 

skies! 
Then  Lynn  class  was  quickly  gathered,  first  on  Massachusetts' 

ground ; 
And  a  church  arose  like  magic,  wonder  of  the  country  'round; 
Founded,  reared,  inclosed  and  covered,  seated,  thronged  with 

prayer  and  praise, 
From  foundation  to  dedication  brought  with  shouting,  in  twelve 

days! 
Thus    Lynn    Church,  with   threescore  members,  strongest  on 

New  England's  soil, 
Heads  the  line  for  Massachusetts,  claims  the  Bay   State    as 

Christ's  spoil; 
Old  Lynn  circuit  spreads  its  borders,    lengthens    cords    and 

strengthens  stakes; 
On  the  right  hand  and  the  left  hand,  north  and  south  the 

barrier  breaks; 
Boston,  Manchester  and  Danvers,  Ipswich,  Beverly,  Cape  Ann, 
Salem,  Dorchester,  and  Needham,  still  the  conflagration  ran ; 
Till  the  new  Rhode  Island  circuit,  circling  Narragansett  Bay, 
Sends  the  chorus  back  to  Kingston,  far  in  Upper  Canada! 
Then  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Providence,  Connecticut, 
Doors  on   every  hand  fly  open,  and  God's  openings  who  can 

shut  ?  — 
Fourteen  months,  six  sermons  weekly,  constant  journeys  day 

and  night; 
Solid    books,  six  thousand    pages !  —  ' Courage !     Forward  in 

God's  might!' 
Such  the   shout  of    him  who  marches  under  Asbury's    flag 

unfurled ; 
Such  the  spirit  of  Paul  and  Wesley !    Such  the  zeal  that  takes 

the  world ! 
Such  the  man,  the  cause,  whose  triumph  crowned  that  vener- 
able elm 
With  a  more  than  classic  glory,  time  shall  never  overwhelm ! 
Gone  the  tree,  in  relics  scattered,  its  own  seedling  in  its  stead, 
But  the  tree    Lee   that  day  planted  shall   through    centuries 

tower  and  spread; 


134  CENTENNIAL  OF 

And  New  England,  'neath  its  shadow,  more  and  more  shall  bless 

the  day 
When  the  dauntless  Methodist  preacher  there    stood  up  to 

preach  and  pray."* 

Several  notices  were  given,  and  the  session  of  the 
Convention  closed  with  the  benediction  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  W.  F.  Warren. 

*  Rev.  Dr.  Taylor,  the  author  of  the  poem  from  which  the  above  is  an  extract, 
deserves  more  than  a  passing  notice.  Although  born  in  Central  New  York,  he  is  of 
New  England  descent.  Removing  with  his  parents  to  Ohio,  in  1847,  he  was  licensed 
to  preach  at  Ohio  Wesleyan  University  in  1858,  and  was  graduated  from  Columbia 
College  in  18C1.  He  served  as  Assistant  Editor  of  the  Christian  Advocate,  under  Dr. 
Edward  Thompson,  afterward  Bishop.  Joining  the  New  York  East  Conference  in 
1862,  he  has  been  continually  in  the  pastorate  within  its  borders  until  the  present 
time,  five  of  his  pastorates  being  in  Brooklyn.  He  is  the  author  of  three  volumes  of 
poems:  "  Elijah,  and  other  Sacred  Poems";  "Grant  Poems";  "The  Progress  of 
Learning  "  :  also  of  numerous  published  sermons  and  addresses.  His  degree  of  D.D. 
was  received  from  Syracuse  University,  of  which  institution  he  has  been  a  trustee 
since  its  incorporation,  and  Columbia  College  made  him  a  Doctor  of  Polite  Letters  — 
L.H.D.  —  in  1887.  Our  readers  will  be  glad  to  know  that  Dr.  Taylor's  poem  is  to  be 
published  in  book  form.— Editob. 


BISHOP  ASBURY. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

WEDNESDAY  EVENING. 

The  Hon.  Alden  Speare  in  the  chair. 
The  Chairman  said :  "  We  will  commence  the  exer- 
cises of  the  evening  by  singing  Hymn  No.  7,  — 

" '  O  for  a  heart  to  praise  my  God.'  " 

The  Chairman  then  called  upon  the  Rev.  Dr.  D. 
Sherman  to  offer  prayer. 

After  the  prayer,  the  Chairman  said :  "  I  will  at 
once  introduce  to  you  the  Rev.  Dr.  D.  A.  Whedon, 
who  will  address  you  upon  'Methodist  Theology 
and  its  Relations  to  the  Theology  of  Other  Denomi- 
nations.' " 

Dr.  Whedon  said :  "  Methodist  theology  is  the 
theology  of  John  Wesley,  and  known  as  Wesleyan 
Arminianism.  The  form  which  it  takes  is  deter- 
mined, as  is  true  of  every  system,  by  the  stand-point 
from  which  it  views  Christianity.  The  key  to  it, 
and,  indeed,  the  key  to  the  life  and  history  of  Meth- 
odism through  its  century  and  a  half  of  existence  as 
well,  is  in  the  following  words  of  Mr.  Wesley :  — 

" '  In  1729,  two  young  men,  reading  the  Bible, 
saw  they  could  not  be  saved  without  holiness,  fol- 
lowed after  it,  and  incited  others  so  to  do.  In  1737, 
they  saw  holiness  comes  by  faith.     They  saw  like- 

[137] 


138  CENTENNIAL  OP 

wise  that  men  are  justified  before  they  are  sanctified ; 
but  still  holiness  was  their  point.  God  then  thrust 
them  out,  utterly  against  their  will,  to  raise  a  holy 
people.'  This  passage  has  stood  in  the  Episcopal 
Address  in  the  Methodist  Discipline  from  the  organi- 
zation of  the  Church,  and  with  it  the  following :  — 
'We  believe  that  God's  design  in  raising  up  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  America  was,  to 
reform  the  continent  and  spread  Scriptural  holiness 
over  these  lands.'  Bishop  Taylor's  chapter  on  purity 
of  intention,  in  his  'Rules  of  Holy  Living  and  Dy- 
ing,' which  Mr.  Wesley  read  in  1725,  convinced  him 
of  the  necessity  of  inward  holiness  as  well  as  out- 
ward, and  from  that  time  the  earnest  and  continual 
cry  of  his  soul  was  to  be  saved  from  sin,  to  become 
holy  in  heart  and  in  life,  and  to  gain  a  certainty  of 
salvation.  He  was  familiar  with  the  English  Armin- 
ian  divines,  but  they  gave  him  no  light,  and  in  all 
diligence  and  self-denial,  in  all  obedience  to  the  law 
of  God,  in  all  use  of  the  ritualism  of  the  Church,  and 
in  all  possible  service  to  his  fellow-men,  he  sought 
for  rest,  but  sought  in  vain,  until  that  night  of  the 
24th  of  May,  1738,  when  in  the  little  room  in  Alders- 
gate  Street  he  felt  his  'heart  strangely  warmed,'  and, 
for  the  first  time,  he  was  able  to  say,  'I  felt  I  did 
trust  in  Christ,  Christ  alone,  for  salvation :  and  an 
assurance  was  given  me  that  he  had  taken  away  my 
sins,  even  mine,  and  saved  me  from  the  law  of  sin 
and  death.'  'Until  that  time,'  he  says,  'sin  had  do- 
minion over  me.' 

"  Out  of  this  experience  the  theology  of  Methodism 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  139 

was  born.  To  find  holiness  and  to  spread  it  was  the 
single  purpose,  and  the  test  of  a  Methodist  was  not 
his  opinions,  but  his  life.  Mr.  Wesley  described  him 
as  'one  who  has  the  love  of  God  shed  abroad  in  his 
heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost  given  unto  him ;  one  who 
loves  the  Lord  his  God  with  all  his  heart,  and  with 
all  his  soul,  and  with  all  his  mind,  and  with  all  his 
strength.  God  is  the  joy  of  his  heart,  and  the  desire 
of  his  soul.  His  heart  is  full  of  love  to  all  mankind. 
The  love  of  God  has  purified  his  heart  from  all 
revengeful  passions,  from  envy,  malice,  and  wrath, 
from  every  unkind  temper  or  malign  affection.  His 
one  desire  is  the  one  design  of  his  life,  namely,  not 
to  do  his  own  will,  but  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  liim. 
His  one  intention  at  all  times  and  in  all  things  is, 
not  to  please  himself,  but  Him  whom  his  soul  loveth. 
Ashe  loves  God,  so  he  keeps  his  commandments; 
not  only  some  or  most  of  them,  but  all,  from  the 
least  to  the  greatest.'  To  this  he  adds,  '  Is  thy 
heart  right,  as  my  heart  is  with  thine  ?  I  ask  no 
farther  question.  If  it  be,  give  me  thy  hand.  For 
opinions,  or  terms,  let  us  not  destroy  the  work  of 
God.  Dost  thou  love  and  serve  God  ?  It  is  enougfh. 
I  give  thee  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.'  Writers 
of  the  so-called  Liberal  School  have  inferred  from 
these  words  that  he  held  lightly  to  Christian  doc- 
trine. And  yet  no  man  ever  did,  and  no  man  ever 
can,  attain  that  high  character  without  opinions 
most  definite  and  decided.  And  so,  while  Mr.  Wes- 
ley says,  '  The  distinguishing  marks  of  a  Methodist 
are  not  his  opinions  of  any  sort,'  he  also  says,  '  We 


140  CENTENNIAL  OF 

believe,  indeed,  that  all  Scripture  is  given  by  the 
inspiration  of  God ;  and  herein  we  are  distinguished 
from  Jews,  Turks,  and  infidels.  We  believe  the 
written  Word  of  God  to  be  the  only  and  sufficient 
rule  both  of  Christian  faith  and  practice ;  and  herein 
we  are  fundamentally  distinguished  from  those  of 
the  Romish  Church.  We  believe  Christ  to  be  the 
eternal,  Supreme  God;  and  herein  we  are  distin- 
guished from  the  Socinians  and  Arians.  But  as  to 
all  opinions  which  do  not  strike  at  the  root  of  Chris- 
tianity, we  think  and  let  think.'  And  it  is  apparent 
at  a  glance  that  doctrines  of  God,  sin,  responsibility, 
atonement,  human  freedom,  repentance,  faith  in 
Christ,  pardon,  sanctification,  and  assurance,  all 
enter  into  such  an  experience  and  life. 

"Now  God  has  two  ways  of  making  himself  known 
to  men :  first,  by  the  revelation  of  himself  in  the 
Scriptures ;  and,  second,  in  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  soul ;  and  these  two  are  not  contrary 
one  to  the  other.  Wesley  learned  by  his  own  con- 
sciousness the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  within  him ; 
he  studied  the  Scriptures  to  learn  what  they  might 
say  to  him.  He  found  the  demand  of  holiness  made 
of  every  man,  and,  as  one  might  expect  in  a  God 
who  can  neither  contradict  himself  nor  mock  his 
creatures,  he  also  found  that  ample  provision  is  made 
for  the  attainment  of  holiness  by  every  man.  Stand- 
ing then  at  this  high  point  of  love  to  God  with  all 
the  heart,  he  found  in  the  Scriptures  the  correspond- 
insf  truth  of  God's  love  to  all  mankind  —  that  God, 
iu  his  infinite  love,  has,  through  the   sacrifice  and 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  141 

work  of  Christ,  made  adequate  provision  for  the  sal- 
vation of  the  entire  race,  and  that,  in  his  plan  of 
application  of  this  provision,  he  has  made  the  salva- 
tion or  damnation  of  every  human  being  depend 
entirely  on  his  own  free  action  with  respect  to  the 
work  of  Christ  and  the  enlightening  and  sanctifying 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  accepting  and  submitting, 
or  resisting  and  rejecting,  as  he  himself  may  choose, 
and  thus  determining  his  own  condition  here  and 
his  destiny  in  the  world  to  come.  Looking  at  Chris- 
tianity from  the  point  of  view  which  his  experience 
compelled  him  to  take,  he  was  an  Arminian  —  not 
an  Arminian  of  the  wretched,  Pelagian  semblance 
that,  in  the  Unitarian  revolt  from  Calvinism,  wrought 
such  mischief  to  New  England  orthodoxy,  and  has  not 
yet  ceased  its  baleful  work,  but  of  the  type  of  Armin- 
ius,  Episcopius,  and  John  Goodwin,  and  of  the  Greek 
fathers  of  the  first  centuries  of  the  Church  as  well ; 
of  Justin  Martyr,  Ignatius,  Irenseus,  Athenagoras, 
and  Chrysostom. 

"Wesley  formulated  no  system,  for  he  was  a  man 
of  action,  and  too  busy  in  the  providential  work  to 
which  he  was  sent.  Some  have  even  supposed  that 
he  had  none,  and  have  ventured  to  affirm  that  his 
doctrines  were  a  loose  congeries  incapable  of  being 
framed  into  a  system.  They  have  poorly  studied  the 
subject,  for  those  doctrines  are  intimately  related 
to  one  another,  and  readily  combine  into  a  compact, 
harmonious  whole.  It  was  left  to  Watson,  forty 
years  after  Wesley's  death,  to  give  them  to  the 
world  in  a  systematic  form,  a  work  in  which  Ray- 


142  CENTENNIAL   OF 

mond,  Pope,  and  others  in  more  recent  days  have 
happily  followed  him.  Yet  it  would  be  an  easy  task 
to  collect  from  Mr.  Wesley's  writings  the  materials 
for  a  symmetrical  body  of  divinity,  clear,  concise, 
and  logical,  needing  the  supply  of  but  a  few  connect- 
ing links.  The  twentj'-four  articles  which  he  pre- 
pared for  his  proposed  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
and  which  two  years  later  he  gave  to  the  British 
Methodists,  abridged,  as  everybody  knows,  from  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England,  with 
their  Calvinism  struck  out,  their  protests  against 
Pelagianism  and  Romanism  retained,  and  his  Armiu- 
ianism  not  inserted,  express  the  fundamentals  of 
Christianity  and  furnish  a  platform  of  doctrine  upon 
which  every  evangelical  denomination  might  stand, 
with  perhaps  the  exception  of  a  single  sentence  relat- 
ing to  the  baptism  of  young  children.  Add  to  these 
his  doctrinal  sermons  and  notes  on  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  we  have  the  '  standards  of  doctrine  '  which 
universal  Methodism  accepts  and  teaches. 

"  Our  Dr.  Warren,  an  authority  whom  we  all 
acknowledge,  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  explained 
to  us  that  '  there  are  four  great  and  thoroughly 
worked-out  systems,'  the  Roman  Catholic,  the  Cal- 
vinistic,  tlie  Lutheran,  and  the  Wesleyan,  resting  on 
'different  conceptions  of  the  relation  between  God 
and  man  with  regard  to  the  work  of  salvation  through 
Christ.  Besides  them,'  he  says,  '  there  is  no  other 
thoroughly  wrought  out  and  distinct  sj'stem.  The 
Greek  Church  has  as  yet  formed  no  definitely  regular 
system  of  doctrine,  and,  so  long  as  she  retains  her 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  143 

present  views,  can  form  none  which  can  radically 
differ  from  Romanism.  Still  less  can  the  Church  of 
England,  including  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
be  said  to  have  a  complete  system  of  her  own.  Her 
theology  is  a  medley  of  the  most  discordant  elements. 
Her  books  of  doctrine  are  appealed  to  by  Calvinists 
and  Arminians,  Puritans  and  Puseyites,  Evangelicals 
and  Sacramentarians,  High  and  Low  Churchmen, 
and  with  about  equal  propriety.  She  may,  indeed, 
be  said  to  be  less  one-sided  than  the  Reformed  and 
Lutheran  Churches ;  but  yet,  her  teaching  embraces 
almost  all  the  errors  and  manifests  the  deficiencies 
of  them  both.  As  to  the  minor  systems,  the  Armin- 
ianism  of  Holland  degenerated  into  Rationalism ; 
Socinianism  cannot  be  called  a  Christian  system  of 
theology  at  all ;  and  Quakerism  has  passed  into  Mys- 
ticism on  the  one  hand,  and  into  Rationalism  on  the 
other.' 

"  While  these  four  great  systems  agree  in  much  that 
is  essential,  they  differ  on  the  fundamental  points  of 
the  work  of  Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  is  to 
say,  of  the  universality  and  power  of  divine  grace. 
In  neither  Lutheranism  nor  Romanism  can  grace 
reach  and  save  those  who  are  outside  the  Church  and 
the  sacraments  ;  and  Calvinism  knows  salvation  for 
those  only  who  have  heard  of  the  historic  Christ, 
and  of  them  for  those  only  whom  God  from  eternity 
determined  to  save.  In  no  one  of  the  three  can  the 
soul's  sinfulness  be  destroyed  by  the  sanctifying 
energy  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  present  life,  and,  on 
the  Romanist  theory,  only  the  fires  of  Purgatory  can 


144  CENTENNIAL  OF 

accomplish  it.  Methodism,  on  the  other  liaud,  affirms 
God's  will  and  purpose  to  be  the  salvation  of  all 
men,  for  he  set  forth  his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation 
for  the  sins  of  the  wliole  world.  It  teaches  that  the 
atonement  was  made  and  avails  for  all  men,  for 
Christ  tasted  death  for  every  man,  and  for  one  man 
as  truly  aS  for  another.  It  does  not  regard  the  suf- 
ferings of  Christ  as  befalling  him  simply  as  a  martyr 
to  the  truth,  or  as  intended  merely  for  their  moral 
influence  on  the  sinner,  or  as  a  ransom  paid  to  Satan, 
or  as  a  literal  suffering  of  the  penalty  of  sin,  or  as  in 
amount  what  those  for  whom  he  died  would  have 
suffered  had  he  not  died,  or  as  in  kind  the  same  as 
lost  men  will  endure,  or  yet  as  the  payment  of  a 
debt  as  in  a  commercial  transaction ;  but  rather  as 
endured  in  the  sinner's  stead,  and  a  satisfaction  to 
the  justice  of  God  as  Ruler,  of  such  moral  value  as 
condemns  sin  and  enables  him  to  maintain  law  and 
government,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  grant  pardon 
to  the  transgressor  on  specified  conditions.  The 
death  of  Christ  is  thus  '  a  full,  perfect,  and  sufficient 
sacrifice,  oblation,  and  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world  '  {Communion  Service).  In  these  views 
of  the  theory  of  the  atonement,  and  on  its  extent 
as  well,  the  New  England  and  the  Methodist  theolo- 
gies are  in  accord.  Methodism  also  recognizes  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  be  entirely  of  grace 
tlwough  the  atonement,  and  liis  office  the  carrying 
out  and  complement  of  the  death  of  Christ  in  admin- 
istering the  benefits  thus  procured,  so  that  he 
enlightens  every  man,  convicts  him  of  sin,  empowers 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  145 

him  to  repentance,  faith,  and  obedience,  whether  he 
iises  the  power  thus  given  or  not,  and  purifies  from 
sin  the  soul  of  the  believer,  in  this  life. 

"Underlying  all  necessity  of  these  operations  of 
grace,  in   order   to   salvation,  is  the   fact  of  human 
depravity.     Methodism    maintains    the    doctrine    of 
natural  depravity,  in  most  unmistakable  terms.     The 
Calvinist   cannot  state  it  more    strongly,  while  the 
Unitarian  wholly  rejects  the  doctrine.     It  describes 
original  sin  as 'the  corruption  of  the  nature  of  every 
man  that  naturally  is  engendered  of  the  offspring  of 
Adam'  (Art.  VII.),  thus  declaring  its  universality; 
and  then  it  teaches  that  'the  conditiou  of  man  after 
the  fall  of  Adam  is  such  that  he   cannot  turn  and 
prepare    himself   of    his    own   natural  strength  and 
works  to  faith  and  calling  upon   God'  (Art.  VIII). 
Nothing  can  be  plainer  or  stronger  in  expressing  the 
exact  opposite   of  Pelagianism,  and  yet,   for  many 
long  years,  our  New  England  theologians,  who  would 
have    known    better    had    they  taken    the    pains    to 
examine  before  pronouncing,   basely  slandered  our 
fathers  as  Pelagians,  until  Moses  Stuart  astonished 
them  with   the    truth.       Methodism  further  affirms 
man's  utter  powerlessness  to  obey  and    serve  God, 
'  without  the  grace  of  God  by  Christ  preventing  us 
that  we  may  have  a  good  will,  and  working  with  us 
when  we  have  that  good  will '  (Art.  VIII).     Thus  it 
long  since  became  a  prime    Methodist  maxim  that 
'  All  our  salvation  is  of  God  through  grace.'     And 
the  second  is  perfectly  correspondent  to  it,  namely, 
'  All  our  damnation   is  of  ourselves.'      It   is  a   sad 


146  CENTENNIAL   OF 

iiilieritaiice  which  the  race  has  derived  from  Eden, 
counteracted  though  it  be  by  the  gift  of  grace;  but 
incomparably  sadder  would  it  have  been  had  the 
race  been  continued  in  the  state  into  wliich  our  first! 
parents  fell,  —  degraded  by  sin,  with  no  love  of  God 
or  goodness,  and  no  desire  for  it,  powerful  only  for 
evil,  and  powerless  for  good,  and  therefore  irrespon- 
sible, evil  and  only  evil  continually,  and  yet  unde- 
serving damnation  for  what  could  not  be  helped,  and 
excluded  from  heaven  because  of  moral  unfitness 
which  also  could  not  be  helped,  —  it  would  have 
been  incomparably  sadder,  I  say,  for  such  a  race  to 
have  been  continued  on  through  generation  after 
generation,  hopelessly  born,  hopelessly  living,  and 
hopelessly  dying.  If  this  were  the  only  course,  infi- 
nite wisdom  and  infinite  goodness  would  have  closed 
the  door  on  such  a  scene,  and  ended  the  race  with 
the  first  transgression;  for,  to  a  race  destitute  of  free 
moral  agency,  and  therefore  of  responsibility,  there 
could  be  no  probation,  and  no  reason  for  its  perpetu' 
ation. 

"  But  there  was  an  alternative  that  offered  hope 
and  promised  blessing,  in  the  introduction  of  a 
Redeemer.  Through  his  atoning  death,  of  value 
sufficient  for  all  human  sin,  both  original  and  actual, 
the  race  is  continued  ;  but  under  a  new  constitution, 
a  constitution  of  grace,  in  which  the  Holy  Spirit 
returns  to  every  soul  at  birth,  endowing  it  with  a 
gracious  power,  both  to  will  rightly,  and  to  do 
rightly  when  it  thus  wills,  according  as  the  law  of 
truth  and  duty  is  discerned  under  his  enlightening 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  147 

influence.  Thus,  free  moral  agency  is  restored, 
responsibility  is  establislied,  and  all  men  are  placed 
under  a  new  and  gracious  probation.  In  this  view, 
and  only  in  this  view,  is  'probation  for  every  man  ' 
possible.  And  this  is  tlie  constitution  under  which 
we  aie  born.  Pictures,  dark  and  terrific,  have  been 
spread  before  us  of  our  birth  under  a  condemning  and 
avenging  law,  powerless  for  repentance  and  holiness, 
and  doomed  to  death  and  hell,  without  })ity  and  without 
hope  until  grace  came  to  our  help.  These  pictures 
are  not  drawn  by  artists  of  the  Methodist  school. 
No  man  has  ever  been  born  under  a  system  of  pure 
law,  and  every  man  born  into  the  world  has  entered 
it  under  a  system  of  grace.  He  does,  indeed,  inherit 
the  nature  of  fallen  Adam,  but  at  the  moment  of  his 
birth  he  is  met  by  the  atonement,  and  becomes  a 
subject  of  grace,  receives  the  renewing  Holy  Spirit, 
and  is  made  a  child  of  salvation. 

"All  other  systems  hold  men  guilty  and  deserving 
of  punishment  for  the  sin  of  Adam.  Methodism 
replies  that,  though  we  inherit  from  him  a  tainted 
nature  and  certain  consequences  of  his  sin,  we  were 
not  sliarers  in  his  transgression,  for  we  were  not 
there,  except  perhaps  imputatively,  and  an  imputed 
presence  is  no  presence  at  all.  Moreover,  guilt  and 
penalty  attach  only  to  personal  action,  and  cannot  be 
transferred  to  another,  so  that  damnation  for  an 
inherited  depravity  would  be  the  grossest  injustice. 
Romanism  and  Lutheranism  find  deliverance  from  it 
only  in  baptism,  and  Calvinism  only  by  the  electing 
decree  of  God ;  thus  leaving  the  larger  part  of  the 


148  CENTENNIAL  OP 

race  to  pevisli  for  what  it  could  not  help.  Methodism, 
on  the  other  hand,  aflirnis  that  '  the  free  gift  came 
upon  all  men  unto  justification,'  and  that  'all  chil- 
dren, bv  virtue  of  the  unconditional  benefits  of  the 
atonement,  are  members  of  the  kingdom  of  God,' and 
no  one  becomes  guilty  except  by  his  personal  act. 
If  the  already  saved  infant  dies,  hell  has  no  place 
for  him,  and  no  probation  after  death  is  needed  to 
give  him  a  chance  for  heaven. 

"  In  order  to  responsibility  there  must  be  both 
knowledge  and  adequate  power.  Fear  God  and 
work  ri(jhteou87iess,  is  the  imperative  law  for  the 
entire  race.  It  is  taught  in  Holy  Scripture,  clearly 
and  with  increasing  fulness  and  application  to  human 
conduct,  in  successive  revelations ;  it  is  written  in 
the  hearts  of  those  to  whom  no  formal  revelation  has 
been  given  (^Rom.  ii.  15).  With  knowledge,  then, 
and  against  knowledge,  every  man  is  gone  astray; 
with  power  to  obey  he  lias  freely  transgressed.  The 
world  is  a  guilty  world  because  of  voluntary  sin. 
And  this  guilty  world,  exposed  to  the  damnation  of 
hell,  the  provisions  of  grace  intend  to  recover  to  the 
holiness  lost  by  sin,  and  bring  to  eternal  glory.  The 
action  requisite  touches  relations  and  character,  and 
is  based  upon  the  sinner's  turning  to  God  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  repentance  toward 
God  and  faith  in  Christ.  These  merit  nothing; 
they  work  nothing  efficiently ;  they  simply  place  the 
sinner  where  God  stands  pledged  to  meet  him  and 
do  what  God  alone  can  do.  Just  as  the  sin  is  freely 
committed,  so  are  the  repentance  and  faith  voluntary 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM  149 

and  unnecessitated.  God  accepts  this  free  action, 
and  by  justification  and  adoption  changes  his  rehi- 
tions  to  favor  and  sonship.  At  the  same  time, 
though  in  order  of  nature  following,  the  Holy  Spirit 
by  regeneration  works  a  change  in  the  soul  in  which 
the  love  of  God  is  restored  to  its  supremacy  over  the 
affections,  and  power  is  given  to  overcome  sin,  and, 
with  gladness  of  heart  and  full  purpose  of  soul,  do 
the  whole  known  will  of  God. 

"Restored  thus  to  the  divine  acceptance,  and 
become  '  a  new  creature,'  to  use  St.  Paul's  expressive 
term,  has  the  subject  any  certain  knowledge  of  the 
great  work  wrought,  or  is  he  left  in  darkness  and 
doubt?  Calvinism,  because  of  the  foundation  on 
which  it  builds,  can  give  only  hope,  and  even  that 
with  fear  and  trembling  ;  for,  on  its  system,  nothing 
can  be  known  until  the  disclosure  of  the  judgment 
day.  So  with  the  other  systems  that  do  not  rest 
acceptance  on  faith  alone.  But,  on  this  point,  the 
Methodist  system  pronounces  with  emphasis,  in  its 
doctrine  of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  which  Mr. 
Wesley  characterized  as  'one  grand  part  of  the 
testimony  which  God  has  given  his  followers  to  bear 
to  all  mankind.'  No  better  statement  of  it  exists 
than  his  own;  namely,  'an  inward  impression  on  the 
soul,  whereby  the  Spirit  of  God  immediately  and 
directly  witnesses  to  my  spirit,  that  I  am  a  child  of 
God ;  that  Jesus  Christ  hath  loved  me,  and  given 
himself  for  me  ;  that  all  my  sins  are  blotted  out,  and 
I,  even  I,  am  reconciled  to  God'  (^Sermons,  vol.  i. 
p.  87).     Thus  defined,  it  relates  to  justification  and 


150  CENTENNIAL   OF 

adoption,  acts  wrought  for  us,  changing  the  soul's 
lehition  to  God,  and  done  in  heaven.  Tliey  can  be 
known  by  us  only  as  information  is  given  of  them, 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  comes  to  the  soul,  testifying  to 
it  what  God  on  the  throne  has  done.  He  does  not 
testify  to  our  regeneration  ;  this  is  a  work  done  in 
us  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  is  discerned  by  conscious- 
ness, '  the  testimony  of  our  own  spirit,'  taking  note 
of  the  soul's  new  tempers  and  dispositions.  And 
this  double  witness  is  the  common  privilege  of  all 
Christians. 

" '  There  is  no  place  in  hell,'  said  good  Bishop 
Hedding,  '  for  a  child  of  God.'  Yet  the  newly  bo^"n 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Christian  life.  The  goal  is  not  yet  reached.  He 
is  holy,  but  not  perfectly  hoi}'.  The  work  wrought 
is  complete,  —  it  is  a  perfect  regeneration,  but  not 
a  perfect  sanctification.  The  control  of  sin  is  broken, 
but  the  taint  of  sin  and  tendencies  to  sin  remain. 
The  sanctification  thus  begun  is  complete,  when  the 
Holy  Spirit  has  so  fully  restored  the  love  of  God  to 
the  soul  that  all  its  powers  are  brought  back  to  their 
proper  relation  and  right  action,  loving,  desiring, 
willing,  in  perfect  harmony  with  God.  This  is  entire 
sanctification,  or  Christian  perfection.  It  is  not  the 
perfection  of  angels,  of  unfallen  Adam,  or  of  Christ, 
but  a  perfection  in  love,  and  that  not  in  amount, 
but  in  kind.  'It  is  nothing  higher  and  nothing 
lower  than  this,'  said  Mr.  Wesley  ;  '  the  pure  love  of 
God  and  man.  It  is  love  governing  the  heart  and  life, 
running  through  all  our  tempers,  words,  and  actions.' 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  151 

"  While  all  salvation  is  through  Christ,  for  no 
other  name  is  given  by  which  men  can  be  saved,  its 
condition  on  the  part  of  man  is  faith.  Infants  and 
other  irresponsibles,  having  neither  knowledge  nor 
power,  are  saved  by  his  merit  without  the  faith;  all 
others  must  have  the  faith.  But  what  faith  ?  The 
answer  is,  a  faith  in  God  as  he  has  revealed  himself. 
This  is  the  divine  plan  through  all  the  ages  and 
dispensations  from  Adam  until  now.  In  the  gospel 
he  is  revealed  in  the  personal,  historic  Christ,  and  all 
to  whom  the  gospel  comes  must  believe  in  him  as 
Lord  and  Saviour.  In  the  ages  preceding,  he  re- 
vealed himself  as  Jehovah ;  as  Jehovah,  Abraham 
knew  and  believed  him,  and  was  saved  ;  and  in  him, 
however  dimly  apprehended,  believed  the  grand  old 
heroes  of  faith  from  Abel  downward,  and  they 
'  pleased  God.'  Saul  of  Tarsus  knew  and  believed 
in  him  as  God  'manifest  in  the  flesli,'  and  he  found 
mercy.  And  Cornelius,  believing  God  as  he  knew 
him,  was  accepted  tlirough  Christ,  though  he  did 
not  know  him.  The  condition  of  believino;  jn  the 
personal  Christ,  annexed  to  the  gospel  commission, 
is  for  them  to  whom  the  gospel  comes,  and  not  for 
them  to  whom  the  gospel  is  not  come.  Thus,  in 
every  nation,  he  that  fears  God  as  he  knows  God, 
and  works  righteousness  as  he  understands  the  law 
of  righteousness,  is  accepted.  And  so  the  penitent, 
praying  pagan  is  saved  through  the  Christ  of  whom 
he  has  never  heard,  by  faith  in  God  whom  his  soul 
discerns.  Methodist  theology,  unlike  the  Calvinistic, 
does  not  regard  faith  in  the  historic  Christ  as  essen- 


152  CENTENNIAL  OF 

tial  to  the  salvation  of  the  heathen  who  have  never 
heard  of  him,  or  teach  their  inevitable  damnation  for 
not  believing  in  a  Christ  of  whom  they  have  no 
knowledge,  and,  unlike  the  New  Theology,  it  sees  no 
need  of  an  after-death  probation,  that  they  may  have 
a  chance  to  hear  of  him. 

"  In  all  this  work  of  salvation  the  action  of  man 
is  his  own,  and  therefore  free.  Freely  fulfilling  the 
conditions,  he  may  progress  in  holiness,  and  reach 
heaven ;  and,  by  the  same  law,  freely  ceasing  their 
performance,  he  will  apostatize  and  be  finally  lost. 
An  absolute  securing  of  perseverance  ends  probation 
with  conversion.  To  say,  with  our  Congregational 
brethren,  that  the  believer  can  fall  away  but  never 
will,  reduces  the  problem  to  a  question  of  simple 
fact;  and  on  this  the  shipwreck  of  Hymeneus  and 
Alexander  is  in  point. 

"  Over  against,  and  in  the  fullest  antagonism  to, 
this  doctrine  of  human  freedom  and  free  salvation, 
stands  the  Calvinistic  dogma  that  God  has  from 
eternity  foreordained  whatsoever  comes  to  pass, 
electing,  by  his  absolute  will  and  pleasure,  regardless 
of  any  foreseen  character  or  conduct,  a  certain 
select  number  of  men  to  eternal  salvation,  and 
predestinating  the  rest  of  mankind  to  eternal  damna- 
tion, or  leaving  them  to  perish  inevitably  without 
help  or  hope.  To  the  fundamental  question.  Can 
the  will  choose  otherwise  than  it  does  choose?  the 
eternal  decree  responds  with  a  negative.  It  causa- 
tively  fixes  all  that  follows  in  securing  the  salvation 
of  the  elect,  and  makes  the  damnation  of  the  non- 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  153 

elect  absolute  and  certain.  A  power  to  will  and  act 
only  as  we  do  will  and  act,  with  no  power  of  choos- 
ing the  contrary  instead,  is  the  power  of  'a  clock- 
hammer  '  to  strike  as  it  does  strike,  and  in  no  other 
way ;  it  nullifies  responsibility,  excludes  guilt,  and 
destroys  probation. 

"Admire,  as  we  must,  the  compact  logic  of  that 
system  of  iron  and  adamant,  we  stand  appalled  at  its 
hard  and  pitiless  character  of  God,  its  relentless 
bringing  of  millions  on  millions  of  human  beings 
into  the  world  under  a  curse  from  which  they  cannot 
escape,  offering  them  a  salvation  which  they  cannot 
accept,  withholding  from  them  those  influences  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  by  which  alone  they  can  have  power  to 
repent,  and  then  damning  them  forever  for  not  doing 
what  they  never  could  do,  and  what  God  never 
meant  them  to  do. 

"There  have  been  many  modifications  of  this 
system,  as  set  forth  in  the  Westminster  Confession, 
and  nearly  eveiy  one  has  been  in  the  direction  of 
Methodist  theology.  In  its  efforts  to  solve  the 
problem  of  harmonizing  absolute  sovereignty  with 
human  freedom,  the  New  England  theology  has 
from  various  causes,  and  largely  the  teaching  of 
Methodism,  come  to  approach  or  to  agree  with  it, 
though  in  some  instances  going  beyond  it,  on  the 
particular  points  of  original  sin,  atonement,  infant 
salvation,  imputation,  ability,  justification,  regener- 
ation, and  perseverance  ;  yet  with  obvious  inconsist- 
ency, for  it  has  never  adopted  the  principle  of  no 
responsihility  for  ivhat  one  cannot  help,  and  it  after 


154  CENTENNIAL   OF 

all  bases  itself  on  the  divine  I'oieordi nation.  The 
Plymouth  Declaration  of  Faith  places  our  Congre- 
gational brethren  on  the  Westniinster  and  Savoy 
Confessions,  and  Professor  Park,  a  well-known  author- 
ity, points  to  '  Jehovah's  electing  love '  as  the  dis- 
tincTuishinjT  feature  between  the  Calvinistic  and  every 
other  evangelical  system.  Our  Baptist  brethren 
stand  on  the  same  platform,  though  they  strongly  lean 
toward  Arminianism.  And  a  better  idea  than  their 
fathers  had,  is  troubling  our  Presbyterian  brethren. 
In  the  undertaken  revision  of  the  Confession  they 
are  struggling  to  give  God's  love  for  all  mankind  an 
emphatic  place  ;  but  it  needs  no  prophetic  vision  to 
see  that  the  marriage  of  that  blessed  truth  with  the 
doctrines  of  the  divine  foreordination  of  whatsoever 
comes  to  pass,  and  unconditional  election,  is  beyond 
the  power  of  man,  neither  are  they  joined  together 
by  God. 

"  I  have  been  speaking  of  theologies  and  their 
relations.  Yet  I  gladly  recognize  the  fact  that  the' 
people  ranged  under  these  several  theologies  are 
less  far  apart  than  are  their  systems.  The  pulpits 
which  a  hundred  years  ago  thundered  their  polemics 
and  denunciations  against  the  doctrines  preached  by 
our  fathers,  are  now  proclaiming  a  free  and  full  sal- 
vation for  every  man,  and  dealing  w^ith  souls  as 
responsible  because  of  their  voluntary  acceptance 
or  rejection  of  the  message.  In  all  the  churches, 
wherever  Christ  is  preached  as  the  Saviour  of  men, 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  received  as  the  Sanctifier,  are 
believing  souls,  raised  'from  the  death  of  sin  unto 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  155 

the  life  of  righteousness,'  and  made  spotless  in 
character  and  saintly  in  life.  The  grace  of  God  in 
Jesus  Christ  has  made  them  fellow-heirs  of  the 
heavenly  kingdom,  and  they  are  one  in  him." 

The  Chairman  said :  "  Please  rise  and  sing  one 
double  stanza  of  No.  8,  — 

" '  Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul, 
Let  me  to  thy  bosom  fly.'  " 

After  the  singing,  the  Chairman  said  :  "  Dr.  W.  F. 
Warren,  President  of  Boston  University,  will  now 
address  you  on  '  Methodist  and  Pre-Methodist  Prin- 
ciples of  Education  in  New  England.'  " 

Dr.  Warren  said:  "There  are  tiiree  fundamental 
questions  to  be  asked  respecting  every  system  which 
professes  to  educate  men.     These  questions  are  : 

"First,  What  is  its  view  of  the  child-nature  and 
of  the  possibilities  of  the  child-nature,  as  it  comes 
to  the  educator's  hand? 

"Second,  What  is  its  view  of  the  environment  of 
inworking  and  conditioning  forces,  amid  which  the 
educational  process  is  to  be  carried  forward  ? 

"  Third,  To  what  end  or  goal  should  the  total 
life-long  educational  process  conduct? 

"  On  the  present  occasion  it  is  appropriate  that 
we  ask  and  answer  these  questions,  first,  with  respect 
to  the  system  of  teachings  established  in  New  Eng- 
land by  its  original  Puritan  colonists,  and  second, 
with  respect  to  the  system  brought  in  by  Jesse  Lee. 

"Our  first  inquiry  then  is:  Wiiat  was  the  view 
maintained  and  taught  by  the  Pre-Methodistic  teach- 


156  CENTENNIAL  OF 

ers  iind  preachers  of  New  England,  relative  to  the 
child-nature,  antecedent  to  all  educational  influences 
and  modifications  ? 

"The  answer  is  not  hard  to  find.  The  Puritan 
view  of  human  nature  is  well  known.  It  maintained 
the  total  depravit}^  of  every  child  of  Adam.  That 
was  not  the  worst  of  it.  It  held  that,  antecedent  to 
its  first  conscious  sin,  and  solely  by  reason  of  Adam's 
transgression,  each  child  was  deserving  of  the  wrath 
of  God  and  eternal  damnation.  Even  that  was  not 
the  worst  of  it.  Beyond  all  this,  it  taught  the 
deadlier  doctrine  that  there  is  in  human  nature,  at 
no  stage  of  its  development  in  the  individual,  any 
real  power  of  decisive  personal  choice  between  divine 
influences  and  satanic  ones,  between  good  and  evil, 
truth  and  falsehood,  wisdom  and  folly.  According 
to  this  teaching,  no  possible  effort  on  the  child's 
part,  and  no  possible  effort  on  the  part  of  its  teach- 
ers, could  ever  in  the  least  degree  change  the  intel- 
lectual or  spiritual  destiny  to  which  that  child  had 
been  irrevocably  committed  by  the  divine  will,  before 
ever  the  foundations  of  the  world  were  laid.  Such 
was  the  material  on  which  the  educator  was  to 
work. 

"  Our  second  inquiry  relative  to  the  Pre-Method- 
istic  teaching  of  New  England  is :  What  was  its 
view  of  the  environment  of  inworking  and  condi- 
tioning: forces,  amid  which  the  child-nature  is  to  be 
unfolded  ? 

"To  answer  this,  it  is  necessary  to  state  the  world- 
view  of  tlie  early  teachers  of  New  England.     This 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  167 

world-view  was  that  known  in  philosophy  as  Theistic 
Determinism.  According  to  this,  the  entire  universe 
was  the  product  of  one  sovereign  omnipotent  will, 
which,  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  unalter- 
ably predetermined  every  constituent  of  that  uni- 
verse through  all  its  history,  and  also  unalterably 
predetermined  every  change  in  or  by  means  of  every 
atom  and  every  creature  from  eternity  to  eternity. 
Moreover,  by  a  succession  of  creative  fiats  at  the 
beginning,  and  by  a  succession  of  irresistible  and 
undivertible  divine  workings  in  the  history  of  created 
being,  this  one  sovereign  and  omnipotent  will  has 
thus  far  realized,  and  is  forever  to  realize,  the  exact 
accomplishment  of  all  those  purposes  and  decrees 
which  before  the  creation  of  anything  the  Creator 
had  unalterably  formed,  relative  to  the  history  and 
destiny  of  everything  that  was  ever  to  be.  The 
Boston  Confession,  substantially  the  Westminster, 
adopted  by  the  New  England  churches  in  the  year 
1680,  and  never  since  repudiated  or  revised,  sums  up 
this  conception  of  the  universe  in  the  following 
familiar  words  :  '  God  did,  from  all  eternity,  by  the 
most  wise  and  holy  counsel  of  his  own  will,  freely 
and  unchangeably  ordain  whatsoever  comes  to  pass.' 
For  generations  this  exact  statement,  with  the  theo- 
logical system  based  upon  it,  was  taught  to  every 
child,  and  professed  by  every  teacher,  in  Puritan 
New  England. 

"According  to  this  system  there  was  evidently  but 
one  real  agent  in  all  the  universe.  Neither  child  nor 
teacher  could  put  forth  so  much  as  a  single  volition 


158  CENTENNIAL   OF 

which  God  had  not  before  all  ages  decreed  and  fore- 
fixed,  in  all  its  antecedents  and  in  all  its  consequents. 
There  was,  therefore,  no  room  for  educational  or 
other  human  agency,  save  as  a  form  —  a  necessitated 
form — of  the  divine  agency.  If  ever  any  child 
came  to  know  the  multiplication  table,  it  was  solely 
because  God,  merely  of  his  own  good  pleasure,  eter- 
nally decreed  that  he  should,  and  decreed  the  neces- 
sary agents  and  events  through  which  that  result 
should  inevitably  be  brought  about.  In  such  a 
world  the  only  possible  teacher  was  God,  and  even 
he  was  not  so  much  a  teacher  as  a  potter,  fashioning 
from  the  lifeless  and  motionless  clay,  vessels  now 
unto  honor,  and  now  unto  dishonor,  according  to 
the  good  pleasure  of  his  inscrutable  will,  according 
to  changeless  and  resistless  determinations,  sove- 
reignly taken  before  the  cycles  of  time  began. 

"  Coming  to  our  third  inquiry,  we  ask :  To  what 
end,  or  goal,  according  to  the  Pre-Methodist  teaching 
in  New  England,  should  the  total  educational  pro- 
cess in  the  present  life  conduct? 

"On  this  point  it  is  not  easy  to  find  explicit  and 
authoritative  ileclarations.  Puritan  educators  had 
nothing  to  say  upon  the  point.  Perhaps  for  the 
reason  that,  logically,  the.  goal  in  the  case  of  each 
individual  had  to  be  considered  as  already  fixed,  and 
so  fixed  that  no  educational  agency  could  affect  it. 
Whoever  belonged  to  the  number  of  the  irrevocably 
elect  was  certain  to  be  effectually  called,  irresistibly 
enlightened  and  regenerated,  and  infallibly  preserved 
unto  life  eternal.      Whoever  was  not  thus  of  the 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  159 

number  of  the  elect  was  incapable  of  any  effectual 
calling,  enlightenment,  or  renovation  of  spiritual 
character.  It  was  not  God's  will  that  he  should 
come  to  the  saving  knowledge  of  the  truth,  or  that 
he  should  be  trained  up  into  a  genuine  love  of  good- 
ness. 

"  Another  reason  for  the  silence  is  doubtless  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that,  in  this  system,  the  ideal  goal 
and  the  actual  goal  perfectly  and  at  all  times  corre- 
sponded. No  human  being  ever  died  less  well-edu- 
cated than  it  was  best  he  should  be  at  that  time. 
No  man,  at  any  point  iu  his  earthly  life,  was  ever 
morally  better  or  worse  than  God  from  all  eternity 
wished  and  decreed  that  he  should  be.  No  human 
being  ever  uttered  any  more  oaths,  or  prayers,  than 
.were  pre-appointed  for  him.  No  man  ever  learned 
any  more  or  any  less  mathematics,  or  natural  science, 
or  philosophy,  than  was  best  for  him,  judging  by  the 
end  for  which  he  was  created.  In  the  case  of  every 
human  being,  the  educational  process  attained  the 
divinely  intended  goal,  and  perfectly  attained  it. 
Indeed,  under  such  a  system  of  teaching,  it  would  be 
absurd  and  self-contradictory  to  speak  of  any  educa- 
tional process  at  all,  if  by  this  term  were  meant  a 
humanly  originated  or  humanly  directed  activity,  in 
consequence  of  which  a  child  could  be  expected  to 
become  wiser  or  stronger  or  better  than  he  was 
already  antecedently  certain  to  be.  A  consistent 
Puritan  educator  could  no  more  set  before  himself 
an  aim  in  his  work  than  a  clock-weight  can  set  before 
itself  an  aim  in  falling.     He  could  not  even  resolve 


160  CENTENNIAL   OF 

to  co-operate  with  tlie  Divine  Spirit  in  training  his 
own  child,  for  a  really  voluntary  co-operation  is  not 
possible  where  there  is  but  one  free  will. 

"Summing  up,  then,  the  fundamental  pedagogical 
I)riiiciples  of  New  England  Puritanism,  we  find  them 
to  be  as  follows:  — 

"  First,  There  is  in  the  child's  nature  no  ability 
either  to  desire  or  to  strive  after  a  truly  normal  per- 
sonal development. 

"Second,  There  is  in  his  environment  no  human 
force  which  can  in  any  measure  remedy  this  fatal 
defect. 

"Third,  There  is  in  his  environment  no  extra- 
human  force  which  can  remedy  it,  unless  it  turns  out 
that  he  belongs  to  a  sovereignl}'-  and  eternally  chosen 
number  of  particular  individuals  called  'the  elect.' 

"Fourth,  Even  if  it  turns  out  that  he  belongs  to 
the  number  of  the  elect,  he  is  yet  compelled  by  the 
sovereign  decree  of  God  to  remain  through  all  his 
earthly  life  in  some  measure  a  lover  of  sin  and  a 
fighter  against  God's  Holy  Spirit.  (See  the  Boston 
Confession  of  Faith,  chap.  xiii.  2.) 

"  Outside  of  Islam,  the  history  of  human  dogma- 
tism presents  no  parallel  to  this  system  of  teaching, 
and  to  the  pedagogics  that  results  therefrom. 

"Turn  now  to  the  system  of  teaching  brought  in 
by  Jesse  Lee. 

"  And,  first,  as  to  the  Puritan  doctrine  of  the  child- 
nature.  Against  this,  Jesse  Lee  made  loud  and 
effectual  protest.  From  it  he  appealed  to  the  Bible, 
to  the  impartial  love  of  God,  to  the  imperishable 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  161 

declaration  of  Christ,  '  Of  such  is  the  kiriofdom  of 
heaven.'  He  admitted  the  natural  blindness  of  the 
infant  soul,  but  only  that  he  might  the  more  magnify 
the  true  light  that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh 
into  the  world.  He  admitted  all  that  Paul  has  to 
say  of  humanity's  losses  in  the  first  Adam,  but  only 
that  he  might  the  more  emphasize  humanity's 
greater  gains  in  the  second  Adam.  He  admitted 
that  that  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  but  only 
to  add  that  that  which  is  born  of  the  spirit  is  spirit. 
He  admitted  the  need  which  every  soul  has  of  a 
divine  quickening  and  renewal  and  training,  but  he 
indignantly  denied  that  the  gift  of  such  quickening 
and  renewal  and  training  was  confined  to  a  sove- 
reignly selected  number  of  particular  souls,  no  one 
of  which  could  do  anything  of  itself  to  secure  .or  to 
frustrate  that  irreversible  divine  destination.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Puritan  conception,  each  child-soul  is 
irrevocably  foredoomed  to  an  inevitable  development 
from  sin  to  sin  unto  eternal  perdition,  or  else  irrev- 
ocably foredoomed  to  an  equally  inevitable  and 
miraculous  divine  transformation  into  the  divine 
image,  by  agencies  already  unchangeably  predestined, 
and  at  a  moment  of  time  unchangeably  foreordained. 
Over  against  this  fatalistic  conception  Jesse  Lee 
set  forth  a  diviner  doctrine,  in  the  light  of  which  the 
human  personality,  even  in  its  earliest  unfoldings, 
took  on  once  more  its  native  dignity,  human  life  its 
significance,  human  responsibility  its  everlasting 
reality.  The  new  conception  of  the  child-soul  gave 
to   the    educator   a   totally   different   subject    upon 


162  CENTENNIAL   OP 

which   to   begin  his  work.     It  rendered  possible  a 
new  education. 

"Second,  an  equally  radical  change  of  doctrine 
was  proposed  with  respect  to  the  child's  environment. 
Jesse  Lee  assaulted  the  Puritan  world-view  of  New 
England  with  a  spiritual  vigor  and  dash  that  amazed, 
while  in  many  cases  it  also  enraged.  He  looked  upon 
the  system  as  a  device  of  the  arch  enemy  of  God  and 
man,  for  the  delusion  and  destruction  of  souls.  He 
preached  against  it,  and  wrote  against  it,  arguing 
where  argument  was  appropriate,  expostulating  and 
ridiculing  where  these  methods  seemed  more  fitting. 
Heroes  of  like  spirit  followed.  They  would  not  be 
silenced.  They  traversed  every  highway  ;  extempo- 
rized their  pulpits ;  preaching  in  private  houses, 
barns,  groves,  anywhere,  everywhere  that  an  amazed 
and  curious  population  was  pleased  to  gather  in  knots 
and  groups  or  crowded  congregations.  Calvinism 
fell.  The  established  church  was  disestablished. 
The  compulsory  support  of  the  Puritan  clergy  was 
legislatively  abrogated.  Freedom  came  in,  —  politi- 
cal, religious,  social  freedom.  For  the  first  time  in 
two  hundred  years,  a  New  England  citizen  could 
appropriately  be  called  a  free  man.  The  younger 
Edwards,  Hopkins,  Bellamy,  Emmons,  Dwight,  and 
others,  sought  out  ingenious  compromises  by  which 
to  harmonize  the  old  theology  and  the  new  life,  but 
could  find  no  permanent  standing-ground.  The  new 
spirit  of  freedom  was  so  contagious  and  irresistible 
that  even  the  historic  stronghold  of  the  old  teaching, 
Harvard    College,   rashly,    and    in   part   ignorantly, 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  163 

reacting  from  the  bondage  of  the  past,  threw  herself 
into  the  arms  of  an  alien  and  unevansrelical  faith. 
As  if  to  disprove  their  former  fatalism,  and  vindicate 
freedom,  the  richest  and  strongest  Puritan  churches 
of  eastern  New  England  followed  the  example  of  the 
college,  and  forever  renounced  the  teachings  of  prim- 
itive New  England  Calvinism.  The  new  wine  was 
too  much  for  the  old  bottles.  With  the  fall  of  the 
primitive  New  England  theology  there  came  a  fall 
of  the  primitive  New  England  Church. 

"  Finally,  Jesse  Lee  brought  in  a  new  conception 
of  the  goal  to  be  striven  after  by  child  and  teacher. 
The  Puritan  child  was  taught  that  its  divinely 
intended  development  might  very  possibly  be  a 
development  in  ever-deepening  sin  and  blindness, 
even  unto  eternal  death.  Whetlier  so  or  not,  was  as 
uncertain  as  the  question  whether  or  not  he  was 
one  of  the  eternall}'  elect.  Moreover,  even  if  of  the 
number  of  the  elect,  he  could  do  nothing  whatever  to 
hasten  the  divinely  fixed  hour  of  his  effectual  calling, 
illumination,  and  regeneration  by  God's  Spirit.  That 
hour,  for  all  he  could  know,  might  be  eighty  or 
ninety  years  in  the  future,  at  the  close  of  a  long  and 
wicked  life.  Moreover,  however  early  the  hour  of 
his  gracious  visitation  might  be,  it  was  utterly  use- 
less to  aspire  after  any  perfect  development  in  char- 
acter, after  complete  holiness  of  heart  in  the  present 
life,  God  having  determined,  according  to  the  good 
pleasure  of  his  own  will,  that  he  would  never  make 
one  human  sinner  free  from  sin  in  the  present  world. 
How  deadening  and  discouraging  such  doctrines  as 


164         •  CENTENNIAL   OF 

these  !  No  wonder  that  ideals  of  life  declined  ;  that 
education  grew  narrow  and  barren ;  that  art  was 
forgotten  ;  that  the  knowledge  of  music  almost 
entirely  died  out ;  that  men  came  to  believe  them- 
selves possessed  of  devils  and  dominated  by  witches. 
No  wonder  that  women  were  publicly  whipped,  and 
Quakers  hung.  No  wonder  that  the  devout  Jona- 
than Edwards  was  ejected  from  the  pulpit  by  his 
own  parishioners,  and  that  the  original  Puritan 
churches  were  secularized  to  the  point  of  adopting 
for  their  self-preservation  the  notorious  '  Half-Way 
Covenant.' 

"The  ideals  brought  in  by  Lee  and  his  associates 
presented  to  the  old  the  strongest  of  contrasts.  They 
were  at  first  an  astonishment,  but  soon  an  inspiration. 
He  broke  the  spell  which  rested  like  a  nightmare  upon 
the  spirit  of  every  New  England  child.  He  assured 
them  that  not  one  reprobate  or  preterite  of  the  old 
Calvinistic  description  existed,  or  ever  had  existed, 
outside  the  disordered  brains  of  Calvin  and  his  disci- 
ples. 

"  He  set  forth  the  sweet  aiid  luminous  doctrine  of 
Christian  Perfection.  He  claimed  that  God's  impar- 
tial love  was  over  all  men,  that  Christ  had  died  for 
all,  that  the  mission  of  the  Comforter  was  for  all. 
He  affirmed  that  all  men  are  graciously  able,  at  this 
moment,  to  place  themselves  in  right  relations  to 
God,  and,  by  the  aid  of  God's  Spirit,  to  enter  upon  a 
holy  personal  development,  ultimating,  even  in  the 
present  life,  in  sinless  character.  With  these  ideals 
of  life  came  in  all  others  pertaining  to  a  pure  and 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  165 

lofty  humanism.  There  was  now  room  and  motive 
for  the  cultivation  of  lofty  sentiments.  Personality 
acquired  a  new  sanctity.  Tlie  gloom  and  constraint 
of  the  older  family  life  vanished.  The  school  became 
a  rationally  defensible  institution.  The  State  be- 
came, in  a  new  sense,  a  sacred  embodiment  and 
organ  of  human  freedom  and  ethical  aspiration.  The 
Church  ceased  to  be  dependent  ujjon  the  tax-gatherer 
and  sheriff  and  jailer,  and  began  to  remember  that 
she  was  intended  to  conquer  and  transform  the 
world.  A  new  spirit  came  over  the  whole  realm  of 
education.  The  public  schools,  originally  for  the 
elect  boys  only,  were  broadened  into  schools  for  both 
the  sexes.  Institutions  were  established  for  the  feeble- 
minded, for  the  blind  and  speechless,  for  all  classes 
of  the  unprivileged,  and  even  for  the  apparently 
reprobate. 

"The  old  Westminster  Catechism  disappeared 
from  schoolhouse  and  home.  Art  and  music  were 
welcomed  back  to  the  haunts  of  Christian  men.  A 
Methodist  Academy  was  founded  in  every  New  Eng- 
land Commonwealth,  save  one,  and  in  each  of  these 
institutions  there  Avere  distinct  departments  for 
music  and  the  fine  arts.  In  the  one  remaining 
Commonwealth,  the  new-comers  transformed  a  dead 
military  academy  into  a  living  and  far-renowned 
college  of  letters.  A  few  years  further  on,  a  New 
England  Methodist  founded  the  first  Conservator}- 
of  Music  in  the  New  World;  one  long  ago  acknowl- 
edged to  be  the  largest  and  best  equipped  in  either 
hemisphere.     Later  the  same  broad,  impartial,  evan- 


166  CENTENNIAL  OF 

gelical,  irrepressibly  optimistic,  educational  spirit 
blossomed  out  in  Boston,  in  what  is,  all  in  all,  the 
broadest,  most  impartial,  most  evangelical,  most 
irrepressibly  optimistic  University  to  be  found  in 
New  England,  if  not  in  the  world. 

"Of  course  it  would  not  be  correct,  or  fair,  to 
ascribe  the  downfall  of  primitive  New  England  Cal- 
vinism wholly  to  Jesse  Lee  and  his  followers.  I 
have  no  desire  or  intention  to  do  so.  Other  forces, 
intellectual  and  religious,  personal  and  social,  con- 
tributed not  a  little.  On  other  occasions,  I  have 
endeavored  to  give  a  just  conception  of  some  of 
these.^  To-day,  I  am  less  concerned  to  show  the 
exact  part  which  Wesleyan  Methodism  played  in 
revolutionizing  the  older  theology  than  I  am  to  show 
that  Wesleyan  Methodism  involved  principles  .  of 
pedagogics,  which,  when  compared  with  those  of  the 
Puritans,  present  an  advance  of  a  world-historic 
significance.  I  do  not  see  how  any  intelligent  man 
can  study  these  Methodist  conceptions  of  the  child- 
natu]-e ;  of  the  divine  and  liuman  environment  of 
that  nature  during  its  earthly  development ;  and  of 
the  possible  earthly  goal,  and  not  confess  that  these 
conceptions  are  higher  and  broader  and  deeper  tlian 

1  See  "  Theology  of  New  England  "  in  McCUntock  and  Sh-oiu/'s 
Cydopsedia.  Vol.  X.,  pp.  327-331.  "The  Edwardean  Theory  of 
the  Atonement,"  in  Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  IbGO,  pp.  38G-402. 
"  American  Infidelity ;  its  Factors  and  Phases."  Documents  of.  the 
Sirth  General  Conference  of  the  Er<tn(/elical  Alliance,  N.  Y.,1874,  pp. 
248-254.  "  Rationalismus  hi  der  Tlieologie  Neu-Englands."  Deutsche  . 
Zeitschri/t  fiir  Christliche  Wissenscha/t  und  Christliches  Wissen, 
Berlin,  Decemher,  1857. 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  167 

any  that  were  ever  before  prevalent  in  the  Christian 
Church.  Indeed,  they  seem  to  me  more  man-inspir- 
ing and  more  God-inspired  than  any  like  system  of 
ideas  that  has  ever  found  equally  wide  acceptance  in 
the  whole  history  of  mankind. 

"  Glance  once  more,  for  a  moment,  at  that  goal. 
We  are  sometimes  scornfully  pointed  out  as  believers 
in  Christian  perfection.  What  means  that?  It 
means  that  we  are  the  one  Christian  people,  whom 
admitted  hereditary  depravity,  and  admitted  circum- 
stantial limitations  of  life,  and  admitted  personal 
sinfulness,  can  never  dishearten.  The  one  people 
who  are  not  willing  to  limit  the  formative  and  trans- 
formative work  of  the  divine  Educator,  either  to  a 
few  of  his  human  children,  or  to  a  few  of  their  pow- 
ers, or  to  a  few  of  their  imperfections.  Like  the 
Apostle  Paul,  we  do  believe  in  warning  every  man 
and  teaching  every  man,  that  we  may  present  every 
man  perfect  in  Christ  Jesus, 

"  Yes,  the  old  nickname  was  just  and  right : 
Perfectionists.  That  is  what  we  are.  What  at  first 
was  meant  as  our  chief  reproach  has  come  to  be  our 
highest  glory.  We  are  the  idealists,  the  optimists, 
the  perfectionists,  of  the  Christian  world.  We  can- 
not content  ourselves  with  any  aim  less  high  than 
human  perfection.  Nay,  when  we  remember  Christ's 
greater  word,  '  Be  ye  therefore  perfect  even  as  your 
Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect,'  we  see  that 
even  human  perfection,  if  it  is  merely  human,  is 
quite  too  low.  And  no  marvel,  if  we  are  the  sons  of 
God.  God-likeness  alone  can  fill  out  and  fitly  crown 
and  consummate  our  life's  development. 


168  CENTENNIAL   OP 

"  With  four  impressive  tlioughts  this  paper  may 
fittingly  close.  First;  Scientifically  and  philosophi- 
cally considered,  Methodist  education  is  distinct 
from  every  other  historic  type.  It  rests  upon 
anthropological  and  theological  ideas  shared  by  no 
other  Christian  body.  With  logical  necessity  it 
grows  out  of  conceptions  of  human  life  and  liistory 
and  destiny,  found  in  no  other  creed,  ancient  or 
modern.  Alas,  that  so  few  Methodists,  and  even 
Methodist  educators,  have  ever  adequately  realized 
this  truth ! 

"  Second ;  Contrasting  our  fundamental  conceptions 
respecting  the  child-nature,  its  educational  environ- 
ment and  goal,  with  the  corresponding  ideas  of  the 
Greek  and  Roman  Churches,  or  Avith  those  of  the 
historic  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic  Churches,  the  Angli- 
can included,  a  candid  judge  may  possibly  question 
the  correctness  of  our  own  ;  but,  granting  their  cor- 
rectness, he  cannot  possibly  deny  their  superiority 
to  the  others.  Moreover,  no  pedagogist,  whose  faith 
is  in  harmony  with  these  older  churches,  can  possibly 
compare  our  ideas  on  these  fundamental  points  with 
those  of  the  extra-Christian  or  anti-Christian  educa- 
tionists of  history,  and  not  confess  that  the  jirinci- 
plesof  Methodist  pedagogy  are  both  truer  and  higher 
than  any  of  those  with  which  they  are  thus  brought 
into  comparison.  In  view  of  these  facts,  every  truly 
intelligent  Methodist,  instead  of  depreciating  or 
apologizing  for  the  educational  work  of  Methodism, 
thanks  God  for  it,  and  glories  in  its  superior  postu- 
lates, standards,  and  motives. 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  169 

"  Third ;  If  Methodist  principles  of  education  are 
what  I  have  thus  represented,  no  Methodist  parent 
should  be  content  to  give  his  child  an  education 
based  upon  alien  ideas.  He  should  covet  for  his 
child  the  best  conceptions  of  God,  of  man,  of  life, 
of  human  history  and  destiny.  If  he  believes  that 
these  best  conceptions  are  in  the  schools  of  his  own 
communion,  why  should  he  send  his  child  to  any 
institution  where  it  is  every  way  likely  that  inferior 
and  partially  erroneous  conceptions  will  be  imbibed? 

"Fourth  ;  In  the  light  of  the  foregoing  discussion, 
it  is  plain  that  Methodist  educational  principles 
should  inspire  and  call  forth  all  sacrifices  needed  to 
carry  their  blessed  influence  to  the  very  ends  of  the 
earth. 

"  Wherein  has  lain  the  weakness  of  Methodist 
education  in  the  past?  Not  in  the  lack  of  prompt 
and  sustained  enthusiasm.  The  first  form  of  Method- 
ism in  the  Hol}^  Club  at  Oxford  was  scholastic,  was 
what  at  the  German  Universities  is  called  a  Seminar. 
Its  latest  form,  in  which  all  members  of  the  church 
are  placed  in  graded  classes  under  proper  leaders,  is 
still  the  form  of  a  school,  with  weekly  sessions  and 
monthly  reunions  of  classes  in  the  'general  class.' 

"  Organized  Methodism  in  England  was  not  a  year 
old  when  Wesley  began  to  plan  the  founding  of  a 
College,  modestly  called  a  School.  The  year  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  took  form  and  name,  it 
also  projected  a  College  which,  had  it  been  financially 
sustained,  would  to-day,  in  all  probability,  have  been 
the  most  influential  in  all  that  section  of  the  Repub- 


170  CENTENNIAL  OF 

lie.  In  all  our  denominational  history,  schools  and 
colleges  have  been  founded  more  rapidly  than  means 
could  be  obtained  for  their  support,  so  much  more 
rapidly  that  our  highest  legislative  body  has  found 
it  necessary  to  interpose  and  to  insert  in  the  law- 
book of  the  Church  a  chapter  dissuading  from  such 
activity,  and  fixing  limits  thereto.  Even  with  such 
cautions  and  restraints,  Methodist  schools  and  col- 
leges have  multiplied  until,  in  every  quarter  of  the 
globe,  their  representatives  are  found.  No,  we  have 
never  suffered  for  lack  of  enthusiasm. 

"Neither    have  we    suffered    for    lack    of   brains 
to  plan    institutions   worthy   of    our  principles.     If 
anyone  is  sceptical  on   this  point,  I  would  respect- 
fully ask  him  to  make  a  comparative  study  of  the 
first  curriculum  of  the   first  Methodist  school  ever 
established,  and  the  curriculum  of  the  best  colleges 
of  Oxford  at  the  same  date.     I  allude  to  the  Kings- 
wood  School,  as  planned  by  John  Wesley  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  ago.     I  am   not  afraid  of   the 
result  of   such   a   comparative    study.     Among   his 
contemporaries   in    England    there   was  not   a   man 
of   finer  or    broader   education    than  John  Wesley. 
Especially   did    he    know  the    best    that  was  to  be 
had    in    Oxford.      Five    years   had    he    spent   as    an 
undergraduate    in   its    most    palatial    College  ;    nine 
years  more  he  spent  in  Lincoln  College  as  Moderator 
of  Disputations,  Lecturer  in  Greek  Literature,  and 
Preacher  to  the  University ;  six  years  more  had  he 
been   travelling  academic  Fellow,  both  in   the  Old 
World  and  in  the  New.     lie  was  familiar  with  the 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  171 

best  educational  institutions  and  literature  of  Ger- 
many and  the  Continent.  Then,  after  his  fourteen 
continuous  years  in  Oxford,  he  sketched  the  plan 
of  the  Kingswood  School,  and  boldly  declared  of  it : 
'Whoever  carefully  goes  through  this  course  will 
be  a  better  scholar  than  nine  out  of  ten  of  the 
graduates  of  Oxford  or  Cambridge.'  That  declara- 
tion neither  Oxford  nor  Cambridge  undertook  to  deny. 
Indeed,  in  respect  to  the  modern  languages  and 
some  other  matters,  it  took  the  colleges  of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  a  full  hundred  yeai's  to  come  up  to 
the  breadth  of  Mr.  Wesley's  ideas  in  1741. 

"Take,  as  another  instance,  Cokesbury  College, 
already  alluded  to  as  founded  in  the  year  of  the 
organization  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
This  was  the  first  Methodist  College  in  America, 
and  when  Jesse  Lee  arrived  in  Boston  it  had  been 
in  operation  but  three  years.  Its  scope,  however,  as 
seen  in  its  official  prospectus,  was  even  then  broader 
than  that  of  any  other  college  in  the  country.  Har- 
vard and  Yale  not  excepted.  But  for  the  poverty 
of  its  beginning,  and  the  successive  conflagrations 
that  quickly  overtook  it,  Cokesbury  College  would 
have  made  the  educational  history  of  the  Middle 
States,  and  the  educational  history  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Cliurch,  altogether  different  from  what  it 
actually  became. 

"No,  if  in  any  degree  we  have  failed  to  attain  our 
just  leadership  in  the  educational  world,  it  has  not 
been  for  lack  of  brains  to  plan.  The  methods  and 
aims  of  our  best  institutions  have  ever  been  in  ad- 
vance of  their  time,  often  l)v  long  intervals. 


172  CENTENNIAL   OF* 

"  The  real  difficulty  has  been  in  the  poverty  of 
our  educational  equipments  and  endowments.  Not 
that  our  record  is  destitute  of  noble  exam2:)les  of 
generous  and  even  princely  giving.  It  should  never 
be  forgotten  that  when  Isaac  Rich  framed  his  will, 
he  devoted  a  larger  sum  of  money  to  the  higher 
education  than  any  American  citizen  had  ever  done 
before  him.  When  Vanderbilt  and  DePauw  created 
the  Universities  which  bear  their  names,  they  took 
their  places  among  the  greatest  educational  benefac- 
tors of  the  human  race.  Thousands  of  lesser  givers 
in  Methodism  have,  according  to  their  ability,  done 
even  more  nobly  than  these,  in  their  sacrifices  for 
education.  Still  it  remains  true,  that,  with  hardly 
an  exception,  the  hundreds  of  educational  institu- 
tions founded  bv  Methodist  enthusiasm  for  leai'ninjor 
have  either  been  kei)t  puny  and  weak  by  a  humiliat- 
ing povert}^  or  have  been  actually  starved  to  death. 
During  the  first  hundred  years  of  our  own  Church's 
life,  eighty-four  such  institutions  disappeared  from 
the  inventory  of  the  crown-jewels  of  the  Church. 
What  became  of  them  ?  A  few  passed  into  private 
ownership,  a  few  were  translocated  and  merged  in 
others,  but  the  overwhelming  majority,  after  years 
of  slow  and  tortureful  starvation,  died.  Eigiity-four 
colleges  and  academies  lost  in  a  single  country,  and 
in  a  single  century.  Such  a  record  of  institutional 
mortality  is  certainly  unparalleled  and  appalling. 
Notwithstanding  this,  Methodism  has  founded  still 
living  educational  institutions  at  the  rate  of  more 
f!ian  twenty  for  each  decade  from  the  beginning  of 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  173 

its  history.  These  are  none  too  numerous  for  the 
four  or  five  millions  of  Methodist  youth  whose  edu- 
cation God  has  directly  intrusted  to  us.  Indeed, 
they  must  be  still  further  multiplied  if  we  are  to  do 
our  duty  in  educating  the  other  millions  outside  our 
fold,  who  without  our  help  must  remain  in  ignorance. 

"The  immediate  duty  of  New  England  Method- 
ists, however,  is  to  strengthen  the  academies  and 
universities  already  planted  within  our  borders.  In 
number  they  suffice  for  all  our  necessities  ;  in  endow- 
ments they  are  far  from  adequate.  In  each  of  our 
colleges  a  Professorship  of  Biblical  Studies  is  urgently 
demanded.  New  buildings,  larger  libraries,  improved 
apparatus,  ampler  beneficiary  funds,  are  crying  wants 
in  every  one  of  our  New  England  institutions.  If 
anything  could  crown  this  Centennial  Celebration 
with  far-reaching  beneficence  and  lustre,  it  would  be 
the  immediate  creation  of  Thanksgiving  Funds,  to 
the  amount  of  one  or  more  millions  of  dollars,  for 
the  advancement  of  Methodist  education  in  these 
New  England  States.  What  nobler  monument  can 
ever  be  erected  to  the  memory  of  Jesse  Lee?  " 

The  Chairman  said:  "Let  us  sing  two  verses  of 
the  last  hymn  on  the  Programme,  — 

"  '  I  love  thy  kingdom,  Lord, 
The  house  of  thine  abode.'" 

After  the  singing,  the  Chairman  said :  "  The  Chair- 
man of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  has  given 
me  the  privilege  of  telling  you  something  that  I 
know  you  will  all  be  pleased  to  hear.     On  the  12th 


174  CENTENNIAL    OF 

of  November,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  the  Committee  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Missionary  Society  will  meet  in  Boston.  You  will 
have  the  privilege,  a  few  of  you,  of  entertaining  some 
of  them.  There  will  probably  be  one  hundred  of 
them,  including  those  who  bring  their  wives,  and 
yonr  preachers  have  voted  to  give  them  free  enter- 
tainment, as  in  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  last  year.  There 
will  be  public  meetings  in  all  the  churches  around 
here  on  Sunday,  when  you  will  be  privileged  to  hear 
not  only  the  Secretaries  but  also  the  Bishops.  No 
class  of  men  have  such  an  opportunity  and  privilege 
as  the  Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcoi)al  Church, 
who  have  gone  around  the  world,  and  seen  the 
Church  in  all  its  various  relations.  This  is  one  of 
the  greatest  opportunities  presented  to  New  Eng- 
land Methodism. 

"I  now  have  the  privilege  of  introducing  the  Rev. 
Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley,  who  will  tell  us  a  little  of  the 
influence  of  New  England  Methodism  on  the  Church 
at  large." 

Dr.  Buckley  said :  "  Mr.  Chairman :  There  is  a 
time  for  eulogy  without  discrimination  ;  when  a 
hero  is  to  be  crowned ;  when  a  great  public  work  is 
to  be  opened  ;  a  splendid  picture  or  statue  unveiled. 
And  on  a  funeral  occasion,  when  mourners  are 
around  the  body  of  one  whom  they  loved,  and  per- 
haps revered,  then  nothing  that  can  distract  or  alien- 
ate should  be  introduced. 

"There  is  also  a  time  for  criticism,  without  eulogy, 
when  a  reform  is  sought,  preliminary  to  which  evils 
must  be  ruthlessly  exposed. 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  175 

"And  there  is  a  time  for  eulogy,  with  discrimina- 
tion. Such  a  time  is  the  present.  And  this  is  the 
key-note  from  which  what  I  have  the  honor  to  say 
will  take  its  tone,  pitch,  and  rhythm. 

"  The  old  classic  story  of  Scipio  represents  him  in 
the  day  of  his  triumph  as  having  a  slave  at  hand  to 
whisper,  'Scipio,  thou  art  but  a  man.'  So  it  may 
not  be  improper  to  say  that  Methodism  was  not 
born  in  New  England.  Methodism  was  not  born  in 
America,  and  American  Methodism  came  to  New 
England.  But,  coming,  it  found  a  people  prepared 
to  be  persuaded  of  it,  and  to  embrace  it,  and  to  con- 
fess that  they  were  willing  to  be  counted  as  '  strangers 
and  pilgrims,'  if  it  should  be  required.  This  pro- 
duced New  England  Metliodism,  a  species  peculiar 
under  the  genus  Methodism.  Hence  the  theme : 
'The  Influence  of  this  Peculiar  Species  upon  the 
Rest  of  the  Genus  on  these  Shores.' 

"  First ;  The  Methodism  of  New  England  produced 
at  once  a  peculiar  effect  upon  the  character  of  Meth- 
odist preaching  in  the  United  States.  The  South  is 
the  home  of  oratory.  The  South  was  settled  by  the 
cavaliers.  The  cavaliers  had  stated  churches,  sup- 
ported by  the  monarch,  and  they  never  attempted  to 
prove  anything.  They  asserted.  Their  gestures, 
being  through  gowns,  were  of  the  waving,  circular 
type.  But  the  Puritans,  who  contended  with  the 
Methodists,  were  compelled  to  demonstrate,  and 
their  gestures  were  angular,  pointed,  severe.  But 
the  remarkable  fact  about  Methodism  in  New  Eng- 
land was  that  it  did  not  lose  its  fervor  in  its  argu- 


176  CENTENNIAL  OF 

mentation.  It  declaimed  arguments,  a  peculiar 
thing,  comparatively  unknown,  beyond  the  bounds 
of  the  six  New  England  States,  in  this  country.  Not 
that  all  the  early  preachers  of  New  England,  of  the 
Methodist  persuasion,  were  argumentative.  Some 
were  predestinated  by  God  and  Nature  to  be  imagi- 
native, rhetorical,  pathetic,  humorous,  witty  ;  and  no 
bishop  could  frown,  and  no  priest  persuade,  and  no 
critic  drive  them  out  of  following  the  bent  of  their 
nature. 

"The  influence  upon  the  preaching  of  other  parts 
of  the  country  can  readily  be  traced  by  those  who 
are  in  possession  of  the  facts.  It  could  be  seeii  dis- 
tinctly. It  ran  out  as  streams.  The  river  Rhone 
and  the  river  Saone  unite  below  Lyons;  and  you 
may  stand  on  the  shore,  and  watch  the  muddy  water 
of  the  Saone  unite  with  the  sparkling  water  of  the 
Rhone,  up  to  that  point  sparkling,  and  maintaining 
identity  for  more  than  five  miles;  but  at  last  the 
work  is  done,  and  the  joint  river  is  muddy  to  the 
sea.  But  the  influence  of  New  England  upon 
the  matter  of  preaching,  and  its  manner  in  the 
respect  now  considered,  was  not  to  make  it  muddy, 
but  to  clarify  what  had  a  natural  tendency  to  sedi- 
ment, to  say  the  least,  in  the  public  oratory  of  regions 
further  south. 

"  Secondly  ;  Methodism  in  New  England,  in  the 
beginning,  was  exceedingly  jealous  of  orthodoxy, 
from  its  point  of  view.  If  you  will  take  up  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  Journal  for  1828,  in  the  record  for 
May  7,  you  will  read  this : 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  177 

"'The  Conference  then  proceeded  on  the  appeal 
of  Joshua  Randall. 

'"The  part  of  the  Journal  of  the  New  England 
Conference  relating  to  the  decision  frT)m  which 
Joshua  Randall  had  apjjealed,  was  then  read,  from 
which  it  appeared  that  in  June,  1826,  he  had  been 
expelled  from  the  Church,  upon  a  charge  of  holding 
and  disseminating  doctrines  contrary  to  our  articles 
of  religion ;  whicli  charge  contained  the  following 
specifications,  viz. :  — 

1.  " '  In  denying  that  the  transgressions  of  the  law 
to  which  we  are  personally  responsible,  have  had  any 
atonement  made  for  them  by  Christ. 

2.  "  'Maintaining  that  the  infinite  claims  of  justice 
upon  the  transgressor  of  the  divine  law  ma}^  upon 
the  condition  of  mere  acts  of  the  transgressor  him- 
self, be  relinquished,  given  up,  and  the  transgressor 
pardoned  without  an  atonement. 

'"The  proceedings  of  the  New  England  Conference 
upon  his  case  were  then  read,  and  brother  Randall, 
being  present,  was  permitted  to  make  his  defence.' 

"After  a  response  by  Wilbur  Fisk,  the  Confer- 
ence took  a  recess.  After  recess,  brother  Randall 
admitted  that  the  case  had  been  fairly  presented,  and 
the  Conference  took  the  following  action  :  — 

" '  N.  Bangs  moved,  seconded  by  S.  Luckey,  that 
the  decision  of  the  New  England  Conference  in  the 
case  of  Joshua  Randall  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby, 
affirmed.  .  .  .  The  question  was  then  taken  on  the 
motion  by  a  rising  vote,  and  decided  in  the  affirma- 
tive —  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  voting  in  favor  of 
the  motion  and  one  against  it.' 


178  CENTENNIAL  OF 

"  This  is  the  record  for  May  7, 1828.  And  it  shows 
that  the  New  England  Conference,  and  the  General 
Conference  under  its  instruction,  guided  by  the  elo- 
quence and  the  arguments  of  Wilbur  Fisk,  was  won- 
derfully conservative  on  the  fundamental  principles 
of  personal  responsibility,  and  of  the  relation  of  the 
sinner  to  the  death  and  sufferings  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 

"  I  Avill  not  intimate  that,  if  the  Rev.  Joshua  Ran- 
dall were  now  alive,  he  would  occupy  an  important 
position,  perhaps  in  some  of  the  Conferences  of  New 
England.  But  I  must  be  permitted  to  suggest  that 
doctrines  further  removed  from  the  evangelical  sys- 
tem are  preached  in  Methodist  pulpits  in  the  North, 
in  the  South,  and  in  the  East,  and  in  the  West,  and 
some  who  preach  them  stand  high  in  the  denomina- 
tion. 

"The  next  observation  suggested  by  my  theme  is 
that,  by  education,  New  England  exerted  a  most 
powerful  influence.  This  has  already  been  referred 
to  so  concisely  and  luminously  that  I  will  simply  say 
that  it  was  in  New  England  that  the  first  Theological 
School  ever  established  in  American  Methodism  was 
founded.  Of  course,  some  of  the  Professors,  indeed 
one  or  two  of  the  leading  Professors,  were  not  natives 
of  New  England.  But  the  fact  that  New  England 
was  selected  for  the  place,  and  the  fact  also  that  sev- 
eral of  the  leading  Professors  were  natives  of  New 
England,  and  educated  here,  is  sufficient  for  the 
puri)ose. 

"  Within  the  memory  of  men  yet  in  middle  life, 


NEW   BiKJLAND   METHODISM.  179 

the  case  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Stephen  M.  Vail  was  inquired 
into  by  an  Annual  Conference,  north  of  Philadelphia, 
as  to  his  soundness  with  respect  to  advocating  theo- 
logical education,  and  declaring  his  intention  to 
devote  himself  to  it.  And  he  who  now  speaks  to 
you  sat  as  a  spectator  in  that  Conference  and  heard 
the  discussion. 

"Then,  next,  consider  that  in  New  England  the 
first  Academy  of  a  preparatory  character  established 
by  the  Methodists  was  founded,  at  New  Market,  and 
still  exists  at  Wilbraham.  Know,  too,  that  tlie  Wes- 
leyan  University,  founded  on  an  old  Military  School, 
which  the  people  gave,  as  respects  the  buildings  and 
grounds,  to  the  Methodists,  was  the  first  institution 
worthy  of  the  name  of  a  college,  established  by 
Methodism.  The  dispute  between  it  and  Augusta 
College  will  not  reflect  any  discredit  upon  the  Wes- 
leyan  University. 

"  I  did  intend  to  make  some  remarks  concerning 
the  Boston  University,  but  the  disinterested  testi- 
mony of  my  predecessor  relieves  me  from  all  necessity 
to  take  your  time  upon  this  case. 

"  I  will  now  make  some  references  to  what  may  be 
called  '  The  Omnibus  Department '  of  my  address. 

"  In  New  England  the  system  of  pews,  and  the 
selling  absolutely  in  fee  simple  of  the  pews  to  per- 
sons, without  regard  to  their  religious  character  and 
standing,  was  brought  into  Methodism,  and  from 
New  England  the  pew-system,  previously  unknown, 
passed  southward.  Brethren,  do  I  praise  you  in 
this  ?      I  praise  you    not.      Moreover,  by  the    New 


180  CENTENNIAL  OF 

England  method  of  cultivating  lay  speech  in  the 
prayer-meeting ;  so  that  it  comes  to  pass,  as  a  very 
good  result,  that  the  laymen  of  New  England,  and 
the  women  of  New  England,  in  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  are  often  better  talkers  on  the  subject 
of  religion  than  their  educated  pastors,  and  many  of 
them,  as  is  well  known,  superior  often  to  distin- 
guished persons  in  public  prayer.  While,  I  say,  this 
has  come  to  pass,  it  has  also  followed  that  the  class- 
meetings  and  tlie  love-feasts,  which,  prior  to  that, 
had  a  private  monopoly  of  the  speaking  of  the  lay- 
men, unless  licensed  to  exhort  or  to  preach,  have 
fallen  into  a  kind  of  noxious,  not  innocuous,  desue- 
tude. 

"Furthermore,  in  earlier  Puritan  times  in  New 
England,  the  Congregationalists  stood  up  in  time  of 
prayer.  Jesse  Lee,  when  he  brought  Methodism 
here,  did  not  stand  in  time  of  prayer.  He  knelt.  He 
knelt  on  Boston  Common.  But  by  the  law  of  imita- 
tion, modified  no  doubt  to  some  extent  by  emulation, 
it  came  to  pass  that  the  Methodists  of  New  England 
neither  stood  nor  knelt,  but  sat,  in  the  house  of  the 
Lord.  And  all  along  the  frontier,  where  New  Eng- 
land touches  the  ^Middle  States,  wherever  you  go, 
you  find  kneeling  disappearing  in  the  churclies  of 
Methodism.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  influence  and 
example  of  New  England  in  this  particulai-,  perhaps 
Methodism  to-day  might  have  had,  what  it  should 
have  in  every  new  structure,  a  'kneeling  board'  in 
the  front.  Methodists  might  have  been  as  willing  to 
kneel   throughout   the   length   and   breadth  of   the 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  181 

denomination,  as  the  members  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  denomination,  who  find  nothing  to  inter- 
fere with  their  fashionable  life,  or  their  supposed 
aristocratic  feelings,  in  bowing  and  humbly  kneel- 
ing, professedly  at  least,  to  Almighty  God. 

"As  for  musical  instruments  and  steeples.  Bishop 
Asbury  was  a  true  prophet,  as  within  the  bounds  of 
the  New  England  Southern  Conference,  he  looked 
upon  that  old  church  at  Newport,  and  said,  '  A  stee- 
ple on  a  Methodist  church  !  Organs  and  choirs  will 
come  next.'  And  they  did.  But  the  organs  were 
only  going  back  to  David's  time.  The  Methodists 
had  become  a  little  puritanical  in  their  abhorrence 
of  music,  and  I  praise  New  England  in  that  it  saw 
the  benefit  of  instrumental  music.  It  began  with 
the  organ,  with  stringed  instruments,  and  many 
things  which  may  be  referred  to  Dr.  Dorchester's 
reminiscences  of  early  New  England. 

"I  must  now  speak  of  journalism.  It  is  a  fact,  in 
defence  of  which  I  would  die  at  the  stake,  if  it  were 
necessary,  that  in  New  England  and  in  Boston  the 
first  Methodist  Weekly  Paper  in  the  world  was 
started.  And  now,  as  that  famous  novelist  G.  P.  R. 
James  would  say,  '  Let  us  leap  over  a  few  years.' 
Let  me  show  you  what  a  marvellous  influence  that 
act  had  upon  'extra  New  England  Methodism.' 

"It  caused  the  establishment  of  a  connectional 
paper.  But  that  was  a  small  part  of  what  it  accom- 
plished. Ziori's  Herald,  in  the  course  of  its  history, 
had  three  extraordinary  forensic  editors,  Abel  Ste- 
vens, Daniel  Wise,  and  Gilbert  Haven.    Of  these,  the 


182  CENTENNIAL   OF 

first  was  equal  to  one  of  Mr.  Disraeli's  heroes  in 
'Lothair,' with  reference  to  the  power  of  disquisition, 
and  the  second  was  an  opponent  worthy  of  any  man's 
steel  or  gold,  and  the  third  .  .  .  What  could  he  not 
do? 

"  But  Zion's  Herald  has  also  had  two  remarkable 
editors.  One,  Dr.  E.  O.  Haven,  may  be  described  as 
the  'editor  of  easy  facility  in  every  department, 
without  abruptness.'  The  other,  the  late  Dr.  B.  K. 
Peirce,  as  peculiarly  '  the  family  editor.'  Dr.  Daniel 
Curry  admitted  frankly  the  influence  of  some  of 
these  editors  upon  the  journalism  of  Methodism,  and 
any  one  who  is  familiar  with  the  facts  must  indorse 
and  even  extend  the  admission. 

"I  must  now  pass  hastily  to  refer  to  the  influence 
of  New  England  Methodism  upon  questions  of 
reform. 

"  Slavery.  In  1836,  Orange  Scott  led  the  delega- 
tion of  the  New  England  Conference.  George  Storrs 
and  Samuel  Norris,  of  the  New  Hampshire  Confer- 
ence, were  the  men  who  dared  go  to  the  abolition 
meeting,  and  were  censured  by  vote  of  the  Confer- 
ence for  so  doing.  Times  hasten.  In  1844,  the 
issue  was  clearly  drawn.  Scott  missed  reading  the 
times,  had  seceded  but  a  short  time  before,  believing 
the  Church  hopelessly  joined  to  the  Southern  image, 
the  idol  which  had  been  set  up  in  the  great  plain, 
and  before  which  the  nation  prostrated  itself  at  the 
sound  of  the  players  of  music,  sacred,  secular,  and 
political. 

"But  the  Church,  urged  by  New  England, — the 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  183 

Middle  States  being  comparatively  indifferent,  and  the 
Western  divided,  —  urged  by  New  England,  the  ma- 
jority decreed  that  a  slaveholding  Bishop  could  not 
be  tolerated ;  and  that  drew  the  line,  and  determined 
the  subsequent  history  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  and  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South.  Everything  crystallized,  as  a  result,  on  that 
action  ;  and  without  New  England,  and  New  England 
influence,  in  the  General  Conference  of  1844,  there  is 
not  the  slightest  reason  to  suppose  that  any  serious 
action  would  have  been  taken. 

"  This  is  the  plain  history,  and  requires  no  adjec- 
tives. It  can  be  seen  written  upon  every  line  of  the 
great  debate,  the  first  debate  ever  professedly  re- 
ported in  the  history  of  the  denomination. 

"  As  for  the  late  Civil  War,  New  England  Method- 
ist influence,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  was  in 
favor  of  no  longer  yielding  to  the  demands  of  the 
South,  and,  almost  as  a  unit,  it  supported  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  was  alert  from  the  beginning  to  utilize 
the  results  of  the  war  for  the  benefit  of  emancipated 
millions.  This  is  a  fact  to  dispute  which  none  rise 
up.  The  late  Oliver  Johnson  declared  that  a  large 
proportion  of  the  ministers  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church  were  in  sympathy  with  slavery,  and 
Wendell  Phillips,  in  this  city,  in  my  presence, 
declared  that  he  could  count  on  his  fingers  every 
minister  in  New  England  who  was  not  in  favor  of 
the  continuation  of  slavery.  And  at  the  close  I  had 
the  temerity  to  say  to  him  that  I  was  a  member 
of  the  New  Hampshire  Conference,  and  that  only  one 


184  CENTENNIAL   OF 

member  of  that  body  at  that  time  could  be  so 
characterized,  and  that  all  the  members,  except  six, 
were  known  to  be  avowedly  in  favor  of  abolition, 
going  as  far  as  he  did  or  could,  except  that  they 
would  not  refuse  to  exercise  their  privileges  as 
citizens,  as  Garrisonians  did.  And  he  answered, 
'  Oh,  I  referred  only  to  the  editors  of  magazines  and 
papers.'  The  veplj  was  made  :  '  You  do  great  injus- 
tice to  others.'  Of  course,  it  was  the  protest  of  a 
child  against  the  hasty  utterances  of  a  giant ;  but  it 
was  made. 

"As  to  temperance.  New  England  has  always 
been  true  upon  this  point.  New  England  Methodism 
has  been  in  favor  of  total  abstinence,  in  favor  of 
prohibition,  ever  since  the  doctrine  of  prohibition 
was  set  forth. 

"I  now  reach  the  second  division  of  my  thought, 
which  is  to  trace,  in  a  sort  of  painless  vivisection, 
the  muscles  and  fibres  by  which  this  great  influence 
has  been  exerted. 

"Through  the  General  Conference.  Mark  the 
distinction  between  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
and  the  Congregational  body,  for  example.  Every 
Congreg'ationalist  Church  is  complete  in  itself.  One 
cannot  bind  another.  The  National  Congregational 
Council  has  not  the  power  to  make  a  law  of  the 
most  insignificant  nature,  which  is  binding  upon  any 
members  of  the  body ;  but  the  General  Conference 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  is  the  sole  law- 
making body  in  existence.  Now,  through  the  Gen- 
eral Conference,  New  England  exerted  an  influence 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  185 

altogether  disproportionate  to  its  numbers.  New 
England  set  forth  a  man  of  whom  the  MS.  Minutes 
of  the  New  England  Conference  say  something  like 
this:  'The  case  of  Joshua  Soule  was  called.  It  was 
suggested  that  this  brother  was  usually  heady  and 
high-minded;  but  others  suggested  he  might  improve 
with  age.'  It  was  concluded  to  admit  liim.  Joshua 
Soule  must  have  been  pompous.  He  must  have  been 
vain.  He  must  have  been  arrogant.  All  testimony 
agrees  to  that.  But  Joshua  Soule  must  have  been  a 
very  great  man.  Wilbur  Fisk  set  an  example, 
which,  alas,  has  been  followed  by  few.  He  declined 
an  election  to  the  Episcopacy  because  he  had  more 
important  work  to  do  ;  or,  rather,  declined  to  be 
ordained  when  he  had  been  elected  in  his  absence. 
But  Joshua  Soule  did  somethino^  (jreater  than  that. 
He  was  elected  a  Bishop,  and,  because  the  General 
Conference  at  the  same  time  j^assed  what  he  believed 
to  be  an  unconstitutional  law,  he  refused  positively 
to  be  consecrated;  and  such  was  his  influence  that 
his  refusal  induced  the  Church  to  recede  from  the 
proposition.  Four  years  afterwards,  they  most  hum- 
bly asked  Bishop  Soule  to  consent  to  be  ordained, 
which  he  magnanimously  did. 

"Joshua  Soule  and  Oliver  Beale,  of  the  State  of 
Maine,  were  the  two  principal  members  (actively 
speaking)  of  the  commission  that  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  the  delegated  General  Conference.  One 
was  the  scribe,  and  the  other  was  very  largely  the 
brain. 

"  Then,  too,  consider  the  marvellous  influence  of 


186  CENTENNIAL   OF 

New  England  through  the  Bishops  it  has  given  to 
the  Church.  I  have  already  spoken  of  Bishop  Soule. 
Of  course  he  subsequently  became  the  Senior  Bishop 
of  the  Church  South;  but  it  may  very  justly  be  said 
that,  when  he  went  out  of  New  England,  he  had  no 
such  views  and  tendencies,  and  New  England  was 
not  responsible  for  what  he  did  afterwards. 

"Then  comes  Bishop  Edmund  S.  Janes,  in  some 
respects  a  model  Bishop,  believed  by  many  people 
to  have  been  born  in  the  Middle  States,  because  he 
lived  in  that  region  when  he  was  elected.  But 
really  Bishop  Janes  was  born  at  Sheffield,  Mass., 
where  his  ancestors  had  lived  for  many  years. 

"  In  1852,  in  this  city,  the  modest,  accomplished, 
and  accurate  O.  C.  Baker,  of  Concord,  N.  H.,  was 
elected  Bishop,  and  he  gave  us  '  Baker  on  the  Disci- 
pline,' a  worthy  successor  to  'Hedding  on  the 
Discipline,'  which  was  written  by  a  man,  who, 
thouo-h  not  born  within  the  bounds  of  New  England, 
I  believe  was  sent  to  the  General  Conference  once 
or  twice  by  what  is  now  the  New  England  Southern 
Conference. 

"Note  the  Bishops  in  more  recent  years.  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  name  them.  D.  W.  Clark,  the 
two  Havens,  Henry  W.  Warren,  Bishop  Mallalieu,— 
these  Bishops  have  gone  forth,  and  have  carried  New 
England  ideas  and  the  New  England  spirit  wherever 
they  have  gone. 

"Consider  the  influence  upon  the  great  multitudes 
who  have  come  to  New  England  to  be  educated. 
The  Presidents  of  the  early  time  of  the  schools  and 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  187 

colleges  of  this  country,  Methodistically  speaking, 
were  educated  largely  in  New  England.  In  1873 
your  speaker  had  the  misfortune  to  be  attacked  with 
cholera,  in  Glade  Springs,  Va.,  where  he  was  nursed 
by  Bishop  Hurst  and  Edward  Eggleston,  and  the 
ministers  of  the  Southern  Methodist  Church  called 
upon  him  to  sympathize  with  him  during  his  recov- 
ery. Among  them  were  the  celebrated  Dr.  Wiley 
and  Professor  Edward  Longley,  who  returned  to  visit 
his  Alma  Mater,  after  the  lapse  of  fifty -two  years,  at 
the  last  Commencement.  These  men  survived  the 
war  and  all  its  prejudices,  and  had  nothing  to  speak 
of  except  the  early  days  at  Wesleyan  University. 
Able  men  they  were,  and  accomplished  men,  and 
such  are  to  be  found  throughout  the  land,  —  lawyers, 
physicians,  teachers,  and  many  of  these  men  took 
New  England  wives  to  the  South  and  the  East  and 
the  West. 

"  The  satirists  speak  jocosely  of  the  forlorn  girls 
that  are  le.ft  after  graduation  day  ;  but  the  statisti- 
cian and  the  alumni  record  show  that,  while  there 
may  be  some  that  are  left  forlorn,  there  is  no  better 
place  for  a  young  lady  to  settle  in  than  a  University 
town  in  New  England,  if  she  desires  not  only  to 
choose  a  domestic  set  of  the  best  quality,  but  to  have 
an  extended  view  of  the  vast  domain  which  we  call 
our  country. 

"  Again,  a  large  number  of  persons  have  come  to 
New  England  and  been  incorporated  with  its  minis- 
try for  a  term  of  years,  longer  or  shorter,  and  these 
have  been  affected  and  modified  in  many  respects. 


188  CENTENNIAL  OP 

Take  a  single  example.  If  Abel  Stevens  had  not 
come  from  the  Middle  States  to  New  England,  what 
reason  is  there  to  believe  that  he  would  ever  have 
had  the  kind  of  career  that  he  has  had,  taking  into 
account  the  time  when  he  came  to  New  England, 
and  the  condition  of  Methodism  at  the  time?  He 
might  to-day  be  only  a  Bishop.  And,  at  the  last 
General  Conference,  seven  laymen  and  eight  minis- 
ters were  asked  if  they  could  name  the  Bishops  of 
our  church,  and  there  have  been,  according  to  '  The 
Lives  of  the  Bishops  '  (according  to  Dr.  Flood  and 
Dr.  Hamilton),  a  very  small  number:  and  only  one 
man  could  name  the  Bishops,  and  he  could  not  do 
it  in  the  order  in  which  they  were  elected.  But 
Abel  Stevens !  If  Methodism  should  exist  five 
thousand  years,  and  maintain  its  spirit  and  character, 
the  name  of  Abel  Stevens  will  be  known.  No  histo- 
rian can  ever  live  who  can  write  Methodist  history 
without,  in  almost  every  page,  acknowledging  his 
indebtedness  to  that  many-sided  man. 

"Again,  consider  how  many  ministers  New  Eng- 
land has  sent  out.  They  are  preaching  everywhere. 
And  wherever  they  go,  they  carry  a  peculiar  influ- 
ence and  power. 

"  As  for  the  literary  influence  of  New  England,  it 
cannot  be  described.  I  will  give  only  an  instance. 
In  my  recent  visit  to  Italy,  I  made  a  careful  inquiry 
into  our  resources  for  the  education  of  the  converts 
and  candidates  for  the  ministry.  And  I  met  an 
Italian  of  great  eloquence  in  his  own  language,  but 
of  broken  speech  in   ours,  and   he  told  me  what  I 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  189 

ascertained  to  be  true,  that  the  only  book,  theological 
book,  of  a  Methodist  sort,  that  they  had  translated 
into  Italian,  is  what  he  called  '  Binney's  Compound.' 

"  Who  shall  measure  the  influence  of  an  Olin  ? 
Just  before  he  died,  the  late  Dr.  Crowell  sent  to  the 
office  of  The  Christian  Advocate  a  letter  written  by 
Dr.  Olin  for  the  instruction  of  a  young  minister, 
forty-six  years  ago,  beseeching  me  to  publish  it,  as, 
notwithstanding  all  that  had  taken  place  since,  there 
was  nothing  equal  to  it  for  compendious  clearness, 
and  I  brought  that  letter  of  Dr.  Olin  with  me,  and 
have  it  here.     But  time  hastens. 

"The  influence  of  such  a  man  as  James  Porter, 
who  moved  upon  a  totalh'  different  plane,  is  not  to 
be  considered  insignificant.  He  wrote  for  young 
ministers  who  had  not  a  collegiate  education.  He 
was  the  most  perfect  master  of  the  conversational 
style  of  speech,  with  whom  I  have  ever  had  any 
intimate  relationship.  He  was  also  the  best  speci- 
men for  practical  purposes,  of  a  church  lawyer,  that  I 
have  ever  met,  and  wherever  he  went  he  stirred  up 
the  young  ministers  and  the  laymen  to  master  the 
principles  of  our  institutions. 

"  I  might  speak  of  another  v/ork,  '  Sherman's  His- 
tory of  the  Discipline,'  with  much  propriety,  but  it 
would  indeed  be  a  kind  of  bringing  coals  to  New- 
castle to  do  it  here. 

"  And  now  it  was  a  very  fortunate  thing  for  him 
that  a  young  man,  born  in  a  sunnier  clime,  drifted  to 
the  rocky  coast,  the  wooded  hills,  green  intervales  of 
New  Hampshire  —  not  because  he  there  saw  the  sea 


190  CENTENNIAL   OF 

for  the  first  time,  though  his  birthplace  was  within 
sixteen  miles  of  it,  and  not  because  he  there  saw  his 
first  mountain,  but  because  he  met  there  the  Fathers, 
many  of  whom  were  alive  then.  There  was  the 
rugged  Jacob  Sanborn,  intact,  mentally,  though 
eighty  years  old,  and  the  saintly  Ebenezer  Newell, 
and  the  benign  John  W.  Adams,  who,  after  hearing 
the  young  man  using  a  pro/undo  basso  voice  on  the 
atonement  of  our  Lord,  whispered  to  him  :  '  Brother, 
have  a  different  voice  for  the  sufferings  of  Christ  in 
the  garden  from  that  you  use  in  denouncing  the 
judgments  of  God  upon  sinners.' 

"  The  second  generation  was  there  ;  —  the  manly 
James  Pike,  the  well-informed  and  emphatic  Bar- 
rows, the  erudite  Professor  Merrill,  the  polished 
Patten,  —  these  men  were  there. 

"But  what  is  New  Hampshire  but  a  suburb  of 
Boston,  considered  intellectually?  And  who  were 
here  then  ?  Ah,  the  two  Havens,  each  complete  in 
his  own  kind.  And  theie  was  the  elegant  Studley, 
who  leaves  his  age  unknown  and  unthought  of. 
And  there,  too,  were  the  sharp  Steele,  and  the  inimi- 
table Trafton,  the  refined  judicious  Clark,  the  too 
brilliant  Newhall,  the  acute  C.  N.  Smith,  the  astute 
Porter,  the  studious  Sherman,  the  vigorous  Thayer, 
the  detonating  Sargeant,  and  the  soaring  Hascall, 
and  I  know  not  how  many  more. 

"  They  were  here.  And  among  the  youths  there 
were  five,  like  young  eagles  beginning  to  try  their 
wings,  whom  the  Church  has  since  recognized  as 
Bishop  Warren,  and  President  Warren,  and  Professor 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  191 

Townsend,  and   Professor  Upham,  and  the   chaste 
and  yet  fervent  Chapman. 

"  What  wonder  that,  under  such  influences,  less 
than  two  years  ago,  at  the  nomination  of  a  man  who 
was  sure  that  the  candidate's  ancestors  came  over  in 
the  Mayflower,  a  certain  editor  was  elected  a  member 
of  the  New  England  Society  of  New  York?  But, 
alas,  he  was  confronted  by  a  law  that  no  man  could 
be  a  member  of  that  Society  unless  he  could  show 
that  one  at  least  of  his  ancestors  was  born  in  New 
Enghuid.  It  was  too  late  in  the  century  to  supply 
any  defects  of  that  kind,  and  so  the  applicant  turned 
away  in  despair,  and,  like  every  true  son,  poured  his 
woes  into  his  mother's  listening  ear.  Then  she  said 
unto  him,  '  One  of  my  ancestors  was  born  in  Port- 
land, Conn.'  Blessed  be  the  memory  of  that  vener- 
able woman  who  has  been  lying  beneath  the  '  grassy 
barrows '  for  more  than  half  a  century.  She  would, 
as  tlie  life  insurance  people  would  say,  be  one  hundred 
ajid  thirty-one  years  old  next  May,  if  living.  But, 
blessed  be  her  memory  ;  for  in  her  arms  I  was  carried 
into,  and  set  down  among,  the  pride,  the  consummate 
flower  of  New  England's  Extra  Influence,  —  the 
New  York  Society  of  New  Englanders." 

The  benediction  was  pronounced  by  Rev.  Dr.  C.  S. 
Rogers. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THURSDAY   FORENOON. 

O.  H.  DuRRELL,  Esq.,  in  the  chair. 
Mr.  Durrell  said:  "We  will  open  the  exercises  by 
singing  two  verses  of  the  first  hymn, — 

"  '  O  for  a  thousand  tongues  to  sing,' " 

The  Chairman  called  upon  the  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  H. 
Mansfield  to  offer  prayer. 

The  Chairman  said :  "  In  view  of  the  length  of 
the  programme  this  morning,  I  will  not  weary  you 
with  any  remarks  of  my  own,  but  commence  at  once 
to  enjoy  the  programme.  I  have  the  pleasure  of 
presenting  the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  E.  C.  Sawyer,  of  the  Troy 
Conference,  who  will  speak  to  us  of  'The  Limita- 
tions of  the  Pastoral  Term.' " 

Hev.  Dr.  Sawyer  said :  "  I  did  not  choose  my 
theme.  It  was  selected  for  me.  Very  appropriately 
such  an  occasion  as  the  present  is  devoted  to  eulogy 
of  the  past,  and  for  our  wonderful  past  no  eulogy 
can  be  too  eloquent.  But  we  are  also  here  to  con- 
sider problems  of  the  present,  and  possibly  to  some 
extent  to  look  forward  to  the  questions  of  to-morrow, 
or  even  of  the  next  century.  We  are  to  study  how 
we  may  win  even  grander  victories,  and  make  yet 
more  glorious  progress. 

[193] 


194  CENTENNIAL   OF 

"  The  most  vital  and  tlie  most  potent  part  of  what 
we  sometimes  call  our  Methodist  machinery  is  the 
method  of  making  the  appointments  of  the  preach- 
ers. Tlie  Episcopacy  is  our  strong  point.  Our  weak 
point  is  our  method  of  moving  our  pastors :  not  by 
the  judgment  and  by  the  authority  of  the  Episcopacy, 
but  by  an  arbitrary  time-limit.  The  two-years'  rule 
was  enacted  in  1804.  Another  question  had  been 
extensively  discussed  by  the  General  Conference 
that  enacted  that  rule.  There  is  no  evidence  that 
this  question  was  then  generally  discussed,  and  there 
is  no  evidence  to  show  that  it  was  very  generally 
debated  at  any  time  during  the  previous  score  and 
more  of  years.  Most  of  tlie  preachers  during  the 
preceding  years  had  been  a4)pointed  for  very  short 
terms,  —  terms  of  six  months.  There  had  been  a 
few  fruitful  pastorates  extending  to  a  length  of  three 
or  even  four  years.  There  had  perhaps  been  one  or 
two  somewhat  too  extended.  But  we  have  no  evi- 
dence that  the  appointing  power  had  been  especially 
embarrassed  by  having  too  much  freedom. 

"Under  the  two-years'  rule  we  continued  for  sixty 
years.  The  General  Conference  of  1864  lengthened 
the  term  to  three  years.  There  were  then  some  few 
churches  that  claimed  still  to  be  two-years'  churches. 
There  were  some  few  preachers  who  then  proclaimed 
themselves,  and  for  some  years  afterward,  two-years' 
preachers.  But  the  tendency  was  for  the  three- 
years'  limit  to  become  the  term  of  the  pastorate  for 
preacher  and  for  people,  if  they  were  at  all  congenial 
to  each  other,  or  if  they  were  not  seriously  at  diver- 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  195 

gence  from  each  other.  One  of  the  wisest  Bishops 
said  to  me,  on  one  occasion  (I  do  not  know  that 
others  would  liave  made  the  same  remark,  and, 
accordingly,  cannot  quote  the  Episcopacy  for  the 
remark)  ;  but  one  of  the  Bishops  said  to  me  that  he 
largely  judged,  on  his  first  visit  to  a  strange  Confer- 
ence, the  skill  of  a  Presiding  Elder  by  the  fewness 
of  the  removals  occurring  on  his  district  inside  of 
the  three-years'  limit. 

"At  the  last  General  Conference  the  limit  was 
still  further  extended  to  five  years.  With  reference 
to  the  influence  of  the  five-year  rule,  it  is  doubtless 
too  earl}^  to  draw  any  definite  conclusions  from  a 
well-ascertained  class  of  facts.  But  two  points  seem 
to  be  quite  clear :  First,  The  tendency  of  the  five- 
year  rule,  so  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  observe  it, 
is  to  lengthen  the  pastoral  term  to  five  years,  if 
preacher  and  people  are  not  seriously  at  divergence 
from  one  another,  unless  therr  relations  are  inter- 
rupted by  the  demands  of  the  general  work.  Sec- 
ondly, There  have  been  changes,  manj^  of  them,  at 
the  end  of  a  term  of  five  years,  when  there  was  no 
reason  for  the  change,  except  the  rule ;  and  there 
have  already  been  one  or  two  where  the  change  was 
the  next  thing  to  a  disaster. 

"  Now,  we  are  never  more  to  have  again  the  early 
itinerancy.  The  itinerancy  of  the  early  days  of 
Methodism  in  America  was  a  perpetual  movement 
on  the  part  of  every  preacher,  from  the  loftiest  to 
the  lowliest.  The  Bishop  lived  on  horseback.  As 
he  journeyed  to  distant  points,  widely  separated,  he 


106  CENTENNIAL   OP 

visited  the  communities  and  tlie  homes  that  were  on 
his  way.  Now  the  Bishops  journey  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth,  and  although  they  call  at  many  places, 
yet  the  many  2)laces  that  they  visit  and  touch  with 
their  royal  influence  nevertheless  are  few  as  com- 
pared with  the  wideness  of  the  world,  or  the  magni- 
tude of  our  work.  The  Presiding  Elder  then  was 
himseif  a  circuit  rider  on  a  broad  scale,  visiting  not 
only  communities  and  preachers,  but  also  homes. 
He  lived  on  horseback.  The  Preacher  visited  the 
families  of  the  circuit  (and  the  charges  were  mostly 
circuits),  as  he  went  to  his  preaching  appointments, 
and  most  of  the  preachers  who  married  took  loca- 
tions. The  whole  thing  was  one  perpetual  minis- 
terial movement.  That  condition  of  things  cannot 
be  restored.  We  cannot  put  ourselves  back  into 
those  conditions,  because  we  cannot  put  the  country 
into  the  condition  we  have  outgrown ;  nor  can  we 
put  the  Church  into  the  conditions  that  then  obtained. 
There  were  then  no  large  cities.  There  were  then 
no  great  denominational  enterprises.  There  were 
then  no  railroads.  Now  the  youngest  States  have 
great  cities,  rapidly  growing,  aiul  the  very  frontiers 
have  the  railroads.  And  the  Presiding  Elder,  instead 
of  himself  visiting  along  the  way  as  he  journeys  from 
point  to  point,  now  goes  to  his  appointment,  to  make 
an  official  visit,  going  by  the  last  train  and  returning 
by  the  earliest  one.  Our  present  system  of  pastor- 
ates is  altogether  a  different  thing  from  the  con- 
stant ininisterial  movement  of  the  evangelist  on 
horseback  of    the  early  days.     The  Methodist  min- 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  197 

ister  is  no  longer  a  mounted   evangelist;    he   is   a 
pastor. 

"  Now,  while  we  will  never  return  to  that  kind  of 
itinerancy  again,  the  real  itinerancy  remains,  and  is 
stronger  and  more  fruitful  than  ever.  What  are  the 
elements  of  our  Itinerant  Plan,  that  have  contributed 
to  give  it  its  wonderful  success  ? 

I.  "  Its  connectional  character.  The  man  who  is 
a  pastor  in  Boston  to-day  may  be  a  pastor  in  Chicago, 
or  San  Francisco,  or  Yokohama,  or  Calcutta,  to-mor- 
row. Remaining  in  the  travelling  ministry,  he  may 
always  be  a  pastor,  and  our  pastors  are  on  a  level 
throughout  the  whole  of  our  colossal,  world-wide 
work. 

II.  "  A  second  element  of  power  of  our  Itinerancy 
is  that  it  says  to  a  man,  '  Go,'  instead  of  waiting  for 
some  one  to  say,  '  Come.'  That  is  to  say,  it  has  tre- 
mendous propulsive  power.  The  man  can  be  sent 
out,  if  there  is  any  community  that  needs  him, 
whether  there  be  a  church  or  even  a  solitary  family 
to  receive  him.  He  goes  with  all  the  authority  and 
honor  of  the  Church  bound  to  back  him  in  whatever 
arduous  or  heroic  enterprise  he  may  undertake. 

III.  "A  third  point  is  its  great  economy  of  force. 
Railroads  and  express  companies  could  not  be  run  as 
Baptist  and  Congregationalist  Churches  are  run,  with 
long  periods  without  some  leading  mind  at  the  head 
of  affairs.  But  the  Superintendent  of  one  of  the 
greatest  express  companies  in  this  world  admitted  to 
me  the  other  day,  in  a  personal  conversation,  that 
his  company  could  be  run  in  the  same  style  in  which 


198  CENTENNIAL   OF 

we  run  our  machinery.  In  fact,  tliat  is  the  way  in 
which  they  undertake  to  run  it,  —  to  keep  every 
position  all  the  while  supplied.  There  is  no  church 
ever  for  more  than  a  few  weeks  without  a  pastor. 
Every  church  has  a  pastor,  and  every  effective 
preacher  always  has  a  charge.  Churches  and  men 
are  brought  together  promptly  and  inevitably,  and 
each  new  pastor  is  fully  installed,  for  at  least  a  year, 
the  moment  his  appointment  is  made. 

"  These  are  some  of  the  leading  elements  of  suc- 
cess of  our  Itinerant  Plan.  The  removal  of  the  time 
limit  would  not  curtail  a  single  one  of  them.  It 
would  not  abridge  either  one  of  these  three. 

IV.  "  But  there  is  yet  another  one,  and  that  pos- 
sibly the  most  important  of  all,  to  be  mentioned. 
There  is  a  supreme  authority  above  both  the  places 
and  the  preachers  to  make  needful  changes,  and  to 
make  them  not  only  in  the  interest  of  the  individual 
preacher  or  the  individual  church,  but  also  with 
regard  to  the  highest  possible  efficiency  of  our  work 
as  a  whole.  Those  in  whom  this  power  is  lodged 
understand  the  needs  of  the  Church,  if  not  by  per- 
sonal observation,  then  by  the  careful  observation  of 
the  local  episcopate,  otherwise  known  as  the  Presid- 
ing Eldership,  —  and  are  not  only  open  to  light  from 
personal  observation,  and  from  the  presiding  elders, 
but  also  are  usually  accessible  and  open  to  direct 
information  from  either  churches  or  preachers,  or 
both.  This  supreme  authority  must  make  its  decis- 
ion within  a  certain  week  of  every  year,  giving  to 
eacli  church  a  pastor  and  to  each  preacher  a  place. 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  199 

Nothing  so  wonderfully  efficient  as  our  appointing 
power  for  the  supplying  of  charges,  or  people  that 
need  the  gospel,  with  preachers  has  ever  been  seen  in 
the  world.  And  the  removal  of  the  time  limit  will 
simply  place  larger  power  in  the  hands  of  this 
supreme  authority,  which  is  wise  enough  to  use  it 
well.  To  take  off  the  time  limit  would  make  our 
itinerant  plan  more  flexible  and  more  forceful  than 
ever.  It  would  put  into  the  hands  of  the  appointing 
power  the  supreme  control  of  the  removal  as  well  as 
the  appointment  of  pastors. 

"Now  a  great  many  of  our  changes  are  made,  not 
by  the  exercise  of  the  wisdom  and  authority  of  the 
episcopacy,  but  by  the  arbitrary  time  rule  that  works 
as  remorselessly  in  terminating  a  fruitful  pastorate 
in  a  great  city  as  though  it  were  a  mere  cutting 
machhie.  In  fact,  that  is  just  what  it  is,  —  a  cut- 
ting machine.  At  the  appointed  hour  the  severing 
knife  must  fall,  no  matter  how  great  the  damage  that 
may  possibly  be  done. 

"  Now  I  have  not  the  time  to  dwell  upon  all  of 
the  arguments.  But,  in  the  first  place,  the  two-years' 
and  the  three-years'  rule  certainly  did  do  damage 
in  many  cases,  though  they  worked  so  gloriously  in 
emphasizing  the  itinerancy.  I  could  give  a  long 
string  of  illustrations,  of  churches  irrecoverably  in- 
jured by  the  removal  of  men  that  were  filling  spheres 
of  distinguished  usefulness,  at  the  end  of  a  very  brief 
term.  And  while  we  have  so  many  able  ministers 
as  we  have,  and  have  gained  recruits  from  other 
denominations,  yet  the  question  is  a  fair  one,  whether 


200  CENTENNIAL   OP 

we  have  not  given  a  great  many  strong  men  to  other 
denominations,  that  we  might  have  kept  in  our  own, 
had  there  been  more  flexibility  witli  reference  to  the 
matter  of  the  pastoral  term.  I  need  not  dwell  now 
upon  the  importance  of  personal  influence  in  the  pas- 
torate. Our  work  has  come  to  be  made  up  of  pastor- 
ates, in  the  real  sense  of  the  word.  It  was  not  so 
in  the  beginning.  It  is  so  now.  We  all  know  that 
personal  power  and  character  and  influence  have  a 
great  deal  to  do  with  the  growth  of  the  pastor's 
beneficent  ministry.  I  need  not  dwell  upon  the 
inspiration  that  it  may  afford  to  a  man  to  feel  that 
there  is  open  to  him  the  possibility  of  a  long  pastorate. 
Gilbert  Haven  once  said,  '  Every  man  draws  his  own 
crowd.'  In  respect  to  Methodist  preachers,  as  well 
as  others,  it  is  so.  The  principle  is  a  broad  one,  a 
true  one,  of  course.  He  spoke  of  the  following  that 
a  certain  man  widely  gifted  had  left  when  he  left, 
and  he  spoke  of  the  different  crowd  that  another 
man  had  drawn.  The  principle  by  him  so  curtly  put 
obtains.  Every  man  that  draws  does  draw  his  own 
crowd.  It  is  an  inspiration  for  a  man  to  feel  that  he 
can  make  his  plans  for  the  coming  years,  and  that  his 
influence  may  go  on  widening  through  every  part  of 
the  community. 

"  But  one  thing  that  I  do  desire  to  dwell  upon, 
passing  these  and  others  that  I  might  mention,  is 
this,  that  we  can  no  longer  say  that  if  Methodism  is 
not  adapted  to  the  cities,  it  nevertheless».if  failing 
somewhat  in  adaptation  to  the  cities,  may  be  doing 
work  that   the    nation    most   needs   because    of   its 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  201 

efficiency  in  the  country.  If  we  cannot  increase  our 
power  in  the  cities,  we  must  go  to  the  rear.  The 
problems  to-day  for  the  Nation  and  the  Church  are 
the  problems  of  the  cities.  You  remember  the  figures 
given  in  Dr.  Strong's  marvellous  book  on  '  Our 
Country.'  One-thirtieth  of  the  population  of  the 
country,  in  1790,  lived  in  cities  ranging  in  population 
from  eight  thousand  upward.  One-twenty-fifth  in 
1800.  One-twentieth  in  1810.  One-fifteenth  in  1830. 
One-twelfth  in  1840.  One-eighth  in  1850.  One-sixth 
in  1860.  One-fifth  in  1870.  A  little  less  than  one- 
fourth  in  1880. 

"  I  recur  to  these  figures  simply  to  say  that  now, 
in  the  seven  largest  cities  of  our  country,  we  have 
the 'same  proportion  of  the  total  population  that  in 
1840  was  in  all  the  cities  from  eight  thousand  up- 
ward, and  nearly  or  quite  one-third  of  our  total  pop- 
ulation must  be  in  cities  and  large  towns.  The 
increase  in  the  cities  of  Massachusetts  has  been  more 
than  the  total  increase  in  the  State. 

"The  extension  of  personal  influence  that  can 
only  be  obtained  by  long  pastorates  is  indispensable 
to  the  highest  success  in  great  cities.  I  could  point 
to  some  names,  grandly  distinguished,  who  wrought 
for  our  denomination  wonderfully,  through  this  fact 
largely,  that  one  city  was  practically  their  home 
almost  through  their  lifetime.  Where  can  we  find 
a  figure  now  whose  personal  influence  in  any  city 
compares  with  that  of  Bishop  Janes  in  New  York? 
The  Church  of  the  future  must  evangelize  the  cities. 
The  arbitrary  termination  of  a  city  pastorate,  by  an 


202  CENTENNIAL   OF 

inflexible  time  limit,  when  a  gifted  and  devoted 
preacher  is  winning  a  widening  inihience,  is  making 
an  impression  that  strengthens  daily,  an  impression 
that  would  continue  to  deepen  and  increase  year 
after  year,  —  the  inexorable  and  arbitrary  termina- 
tion of  such  a  pastorate,  at  the  end  of  five  years,  is 
a  ereat  sacrifice  to  make  to  a  rule  that  serves  no 
useful  purpose,  even  in  localities  where  frequent 
changes  are  desirable.  And  the  city  churches  that 
especially  need  the  possibility  of  longer  pastorates, 
are  those  that  are  seeking  to  win  the  masses.  There 
are  concrete  cases  like  that  of  the  Church  in  which 
we  stand  to-da}',  and  Clark  Street  Church,  Chicago, 
churches  for  the  masses,  that  I  know  give  the  appoint- 
ing power  oftentimes  a  great  deal  of  thought,  some- 
times, possibly,  anxiety. 

"  There  are  objections.  It  is  objected,  for  instance, 
that  ministers  will  move  b}'^  law  loyally,  and  churches 
will  loyally  submit  to  law,  when  they  will  not  either 
of  them  so  gracefully  submit  to  the  supreme  authority 
of  which  I  have  spoken.  It  does  not  do  simply  to 
contradict  that;  but  the  answer  is  found  in  this, 
that  this  argument  does  not  apply  since  the  exten- 
sion to  five  years.  It  was  to  some  extent  a  telling 
argument  before  that.  The  extension  to  five  years 
implies  this,  that  in  a  great  many  cases  there  shall 
be  changes  within  the  term.  That  was  in  the  minds 
of  those  who  inaugurated  the  rule,  and  thus  far 
there  have  been  a  great  many  changes  within  the 
term,  and^^  tliey  have  been  loyally  accepted  by  the 
ministry  and  the  membership  of  the  Church.     The 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  203 

ministers  and  the  societies  of  American  Methodism 
are  loval  to  the  appointing  power  of  the  Church, 
and  would  be,  even  althougli  it  might  here  and  there 
continue  a  man  for  eight,  or  ten,  or  fifteen  years,  mov- 
ing others  from  phace  to  place  with  greater  rapidity. 

"  A  second  objection  is  that  it  would  give  the  Bish- 
ops too  much  jjower.  I  am  willing  it  should.  They 
will  always  have  abundance  of  advice.  I  don't  believe 
they  can  have  too  much  authority  in  the  moving  or 
the  appointing  of  preachers.  They  use  their  power 
reasonably,  wisely,  and  humbly,  and  they  are  anfen- 
able  to  the  General  Conference.  And  some  of  those 
who  argue  against  too  much  increase  of  episcopal 
prerogative  have  panaceas  which  they  provide  for 
possible  contingencies  of  the  Church,  which  we  can- 
not accept  without  ceasing  to  be  Episcopal  Method- 
ists, in  the  best  sense  of  the  term.  Let  us  leave  the 
Bishops  of  to-day  as  unfettered  as  Francis  Asbury 
was  for  the  first  twenty  years  of  his  episcopate. 

"  A  third  objection  is  that  it  might  introduce  too 
great  disparity  among  our  ministers,  the  rapidly 
moving  men  of  comparatively  small  calibre,  or 
small  application,  being  placed  in  too  great  contrast 
with  men  of  more  solid  elements.  Well,  that  dis- 
parity will  exist  in  any  state  of  things,  and  the 
better  the  system  the  greater  it  will  appear;  but, 
under  our  system,  the  most  inefficient  preacher  that 
continues  in  the  ranks  as  a  travelling  preacher  is 
insured  at  least  this,  an  appointment  for  a  year  at  a 
time.  Where  is  there  another  denomination  in  the 
world  that  can  assure  any  man  in  its  ministry  ap- 


204  CENTENNIAL  OF 

pointments  every  year,  and  for  at  least  a  year  at  a 
time?  I  could  point  you  to  many  churches  in  other 
denominations  that  enjoy  mainly  the  ministry  of 
stated  supplies,  that  serve  them  three  months,  six 
months,  and  sometimes  for  a  year,  and  I  could  picture 
gifted,  studious  and  devoted  men  hunting  at  various 
bureaus  for  places  where  they  may  preach  on  Sunday. 
Now  we  give  to  the  least  equipped  man  among  us  at 
least  a  place  for  a  year  at  a  time.  That  is  a  great  deal 
to  do.  Ought  we,  for  the  sake  of  those  who  might 
itinerate  raj^idly,  to  deprive  ourselves,  in  large  places, 
of  the  growing  influence  of  strong  men  that  can 
help  us  meet  the  problems  that  certainly  do  confront 
us  in  this  day  ? 

"  I  pass  these  points  rapidly.  There  are  two  ways 
of  honoring  the  memories  of  the  fathers  and  found- 
ers. One  of  them  is  by  adoring  their  relics.  A 
better  way  is  by  emulating  their  spirit.  They 
achieved  glorious  results  in  their  day,  because  they 
adapted  their  methods  so  perfectly  to  its  needs.  In 
their  spirit  let  us  move  forward  fearlessly,  adapting 
our  thought,  our  words,  our  acts,  our  legislation,  our 
methods,  to  the  needs  of  our  day.  Let  every  pastor 
be  displaced  and  be  replaced  by  the  hands  of  the 
appointing  power,  and  let  the  relation  of  each  indi- 
vidual pastor  to  each  particular  church  be  carefully 
considered  at  the  end  of  each  year.  This  is  not  a 
burning  question,  let  me  say.  I  do  not  think  there 
should  be  fretful  agitation  about  it.  I  only  present 
it  here  this  morning  because  I  could  not  do  other- 
wise honestly.     It  is   my  belief  that  the   change  I 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  205 

advocate  will  come  easily  and  ere  long.  It  will  per- 
fect our  itinerant  plan.  It  is  demanded  by  the  spirit 
of  our  times.  The  extension  to  five  years  has  pre- 
pared the  way  for  it.  For  good  reasons,  we  many 
years  ago  removed  the  limit  from  the  most  avangel- 
istic  department  of  our  work,  our  missions.  Our 
machinery  will  run  more  smoothly  and  more  efficiently 
than  ever,  when  we  take  off  the  time-limit  brake 
altogether. 

"  I  realize  that  the  grand  success  of  Methodist 
ministers  does  not  mainly  depend  upon  the  length  of 
their  terms,  or  the  particular  localities  in  which  they 
live,  but  upon  the  faith  and  the  spirit  they  exercise. 
A  great  preacher  in  early  times  said :  '  I  saw  the 
Lord  upon  a  throne,  high  and  lifted  up,  and  his  train 
filled  the  temple.  Above  it  stood  the  seraphims : 
each  one  had  six  wings ;  with  twain  he  covered  his 
face,  and  with  twain  he  covered  his  feet,  and  with 
twain  he  did  fly.  And  one  cried  unto  another  and 
said.  Holy,  holy,  holy  is  the  Lord  of  Hosts ;  the 
whole  earth  is  full  of  his  glory.  And  the  posts  of 
the  door  moved  at  the  voice  of  him  that  cried. 
Then  said  I,  Woe  is  me  !  for  I  am  undone;  because 
I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell  in  the 
midst  of  a  people  of  unclean  lips ;  for  mine  eyes 
have  seen  the  King,  the  Lord  of  Hosts.  Then  flew 
one  of  the  seraphims  unto  me,  having  a  live  coal  in 
his  hand,  which  he  had  taken  with  the  tongs  from  off 
the  altar ;  and  he  laid  it  upon  my  mouth,  and  said, 
Lo,  this  hath  touched  thy  lips,  and  thine  iniquity  is 
taken  away,  and  thy  sin  is  purged.     Also  I  heard 


206  CENTENNIAL  OB^ 

the  voice  of  the  Lord,  saying,  Wliom  shall  I  send, 
and  who  will  go  for  us?  Then  said  I,  Here  am  I  ; 
send  me.'  The  faith  that  sees  the  whole  earth  filled 
with  the  glory  of  God,  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ, 
the  spirit  of  entire  consecration  and  spiritual  cleans- 
ing, and  the  lips  touched  with  the  live  coal  from 
God's  own  altar,  will  win  the  world  to  Christ." 

The  Chairman  said  :  "  I  feel  honored  to  be  able 
to  present  to  you  one  who  so  well  fills  the  editorial 
chair  of  Zions  Herald  ;  one  who  has  the  couracre  of 
liis  convictions,  and  under  whose  editorship  Ziori's 
Herald  represents  now,  as  well  as,  if  not  better  than, 
it  ever  did  before,  true,  progressive,  aggressive,  New 
England  Methodism.  Dr.  Parkhurst,  in  his  trips  to 
the  South  this  winter,  gave  a  great  deal  of  time  and 
study  to  the  question  of  the  Negro  Problem  in  the 
South.  He  now  speaks  to  us  this  morning  on  'New 
England  Methodism  and  the  Negro.'  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  introduce  to  a  Boston  audience  Rev. 
Charles  Parkhurst,  Editor  of  Zions  Herald^ 

Dr.  Parkhurst  said  :  "  Mr.  President  and  Brethren, 
this  is  a  notable  record.  It  lifts  to  the  highest  moral 
altitude.  Men  with  majestic  purpose  and  martyr 
faitli  move  before  us.  The  Eleventh  Chapter  of 
Hebrews  is  continued. 

"American  Methodism  took  its  original  position 
on  the  matter  of  slavery  from  the  lips  of  John 
Wesley.  As  a  religious  leader  his  moral  vision 
was  remarkably  acute.  He  was  pre-eminently  a 
reformer  and  of  the  most  aggressive  type.  He 
never    compromised    with    sin    in    any    form,    and 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  207 

he  was  as  abrupt  and  unsparing  in  his  denunci- 
ations as  John  the  Baptist.  Very  signally  is  this 
observed  if  we  contrast  liim  with  Whitefield.  White- 
field  said :  '  As  to  the  lawfulness  of  keeping  slaves  I 
have  no  doubt.  What  a  flourishing  country  might 
Georgia  have  been  had  the  use  of  them  been  per- 
mitted years  ago  !  '  Twenty  years  afterward  he  died, 
owning  seventy-five  slaves  in  Georgia.  It  is  matter 
for  devout  congratulation  that  Wesley  never  could 
have  made  such  a  shameful  record.  He  saw  slavery 
in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  in  1736,  and  his  soul 
was  stirred  w\th  fiery  indignation  against  it.  His 
opposition  found  immediate,  empliatic,  and  perma- 
nent protest.  Four  days  before  his  death  he  wrote: 
'American  slavery,  the  vilest  that  ever  saw  the  sun.' 
His  '  Thoughts  on  Slavery '  was  the  most  forceful 
philippic  ever  penned.  These  are  sample  sentences: 
'  I  strike  at  the  root  of  this  complicated  villany  ; '  '  I 
absolutely  deny  all  slaveholding  to  be  consistent  with 
any  degree  of  natural  justice,  mercy,  and  truth;' 
'Men-buyers  are  exactly  on  a  level  with  men-steal- 
ers;'  'Liberty  is  the  right  of  every  human  creature 
as  soon  as  he  breathes  the  vital  air,  and  no  human 
being  can  deprive  him  of  that  right  which  he  derives 
from  the  law  of  nature.'  When  it  is  remembered 
that  the  ministry  and  Church  universal  were  assert- 
ing at  this  very  time,  with  Whitefield,  '  that  slavery 
was  a  divine  institution,'  and  seeking  to  sustain  the 
position  b}^  supposed  Biblical  affirmation,  it  will  be" 
seen  that  Wesley  was  violently  radical  and  revolu- 
tionary upon  this  subject. 


208  CENTENNIAL   OF 

"American  Methodism  was  a  direct  transplant 
from  English  soil,  bringing  these  ardent  views  of 
Wesley  relative  to  slavery.  Asbury  and  Coke  came 
to  this  land  cherishing  Wesley's  vehement  opposition 
to  the  system.  The  Minutes  of  the  Baltimore  Con- 
ference of  1780  contain  the  following  questions  and 
answers:  'Question  16.  Ought  not  this  Conference 
to  require  those  travelling  preachers  who  hold  slaves 
to  give  promise  to  set  them  free?  Answer.  Yes. 
Question  17.  Does  this  Conference  acknowledge 
that  slavery  is  contrary  to  the  laws  of  God,  man, 
and  nature,  and  hurtful  to  society ;  contrary  to  the 
dictates  of  conscience  and  pure  religion,  and  doing 
that  which  we  would  not  others  should  do  to  us  and 
ours  ?  Do  we  pass  our  disapprobation  on  all  our 
friends  who  keep  slaves,  and  advise  their  freedom  ? 
Answer.     Yes.' 

"  That  was  the  position  which  Methodism  took  in 
this  land  at  the  first  toward  slavery.  It  was  the 
impress  indelible  that  John  Wesley  put  upon  Amer- 
ican Methodism  in  its  inception.  Thus  the  '  irre- 
pressible conflict'  began  in  New  England.  The 
student  who  goes  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  anti- 
slavery  struggle  in  New  England  Methodism  will 
come  at  last  to  the  teachings  of  the  Founder  of  our 
Church  as  the  rightful  and  authoritative  source. 
John  Wesley,  therefore,  was  the  first  abolitionist, 
and  Methodism  in  this  reform  antedates  all  other 
abolition  movements.  Our  paper  is  historical,  but 
of  course  it  is  impossible  in  the  limitations  of  time 
necessarily  imposed  to  do  more  than  to  glance  at  the 
most  important  epochs  of  this  struggle. 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  200 

"  Unquestionably  the  most  influential  factor  in 
the  Metliodist  Church  in  the  cause  of  abolition  was 
Orange  Scott.  I  knew  little  of  this  man  and  his 
work  until  I  have  studied  him  recently,  in  standard 
Methodist  writers.  I  am  not  to  discuss  the  lifelong 
career  of  the  man,  nor  to  approve  of  his  secession 
from  the  Church.  That  was  the  irreparable  mistake 
of  his  life.  Searching  the  record,  however,  without 
prejudice  or  preference,  and  only  with  the  view  to 
learn  the  facts,  I  must  confess  that  representative 
Methodists  photograph  this  man  in  this  struggle 
against  the  monster  of  Negro  slavery  in  such  a  way 
as  to  call  forth  from  me  most  grateful  and  enthusi- 
astic response.  If  we  rightly  hold  Garrison,  Phillips, 
and  Whittier  in  a  kind  of  veneration  akin  to  worship, 
then  I  do  not  see  how  we  can  be  just  and  withhold 
the  tribute  of  most  generous  praise  from  Orange 
Scott,  for  his  opposition  to  this  great  curse.  In 
1833,  when  Scott  was  thirty-three  years  of  age,  and 
then  a  most  successful  Methodist  minister,  his  atten- 
tion was  first  called  seriously  to  the  subject  of 
abolition.  For  a  year,  like  Paul  in  Arabia,  he  read 
and  pondered  over  the  new  call  to  duty.  As  Presid- 
ing Elder  of  the  Providence  District,  at  camp-meet- 
ings and  other  public  assemblies,  he  began  to  pour 
out  his  soul  against  slavery.  Then,  too,  at  the 
invitation  of  D.  H.  Ela,  publisher  of  Ziori's  Herald^ 
he  began  a  series  of  articles  in  that  fearless  journal 
against  the  barbarities  of  the  system.  He  says:  'At 
this  time  I  subscribed  for  one  hundred  copies  of  the 
Liberator  (Mr.  Garrison's  paper)  for  three  months. 


210  CENTENNIAL   OF 

to  be  directed  to  one  hundred  preachers  of  the  New- 
England  Conference.  The  result  was  as  I  had 
anticipated.  Before  the  tliree  months  expired  a 
majority  of  the  Conference  (one  hundred  and  fifty 
members  in  all)  was  converted  to  abolitionism.' 
June  4th,  1835,  the  New  England  Conference,  sit- 
ting in  Lynn,  organized  an  anti-slavery  society  on 
the  basis  of  the  immediate  and  unconditional  aboli- 
tion of  slavery,  and  invited  that  heroic  reformer, 
George  Thompson,  to  address  them.  North  Bennet 
Street  Church  was  soon  opened  to  Mr.  Thompson  on 
a  Fast  Day,  for  a  sermon  on  the  same  subject. 
Garrison  wrote  of  the  event :  '  The  primitive  spirit 
of  Methodism  is  beginning  to  revive  wdth  all  its  holy 
zeal  and  courage,  and  it  will  not  falter  until  the 
Methodist  Churches  are  purged  from  the  pollution 
of  slavery,  and  the  last  slave  in  the  land  stands  forth 
a  redeemed  and  regenerated  being.'  The  New 
Hami)shire  Conference  formed  an  anti-slavery  society 
the  same  year.  These  Conferences  stood  together 
in  the  leadership  of  the  cause  of  abolitionism  in  New 
England  Methodism. 

"  Says  Abel  Stevens :  '  By  1834  the  contest  was 
begun  in  great  earnest  by  the  'Appeal'  of  a  number 
of  the  New  England  preachers  and  the  '  Counter 
Appeal '  of  others.  The  New  Hampshire  Confer- 
ence soon  after  passed  decidedly  anti-slavery  resolu- 
tions. The  refusal  of  the  bishop  to  put  these 
resolutions  to  vote  originated  a  new  question  on 
'Conference  Rights,'  and  the  Eastern  Conferences 
were  soon  rife  with  both.    Meanwhile,  Zion's  Herald, 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  211 

the  earliest  journal  of  the  denomination,  and  the 
most  vigorous  in  all  progressive  measures,  became 
the  effective  organ  of  these  contests.' 

"  It  is  a  humiliating  chapter,  but  suggestive  as  a 
warning,  tha;t  so  many  of  the  great  and  revered 
names  of  our  Methodism  bowed  down  before  this 
Baal  of  iniquity.  The  great  Hedding,  as  he  i)resides 
over  these  two  Conferences,  in  the 'years  1835  and 
1836,  undertakes  to  silence  all  discussion  upon  the 
subject  of  slavery,  and  actually  exercises  his  prerog- 
ative as  the  appointing  power  to  discipline  and 
humiliate  Orange  Scott ;  and  only  because  that  man 
of  conscience  will  not  promise  to  close  his  lips  on 
the  subject  of  abolition.  Wilbur  Fisk  is  elected  a 
delegate  to  General  Conference,  at  the  session  of  the 
New  England  Conference  held  at  Lynn  in  1835,  but 
declines  to  serve  because  all  of  his  colleagues  are 
radical  abolitionists.  In  October,  1835,  a  petition 
tliat  Congress  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  is  presented  to  Wilbur  Fisk  for  his  signa- 
ture, and  he  declines  to  sign  it,  with  a  taunting  word 
for  all  abolitionists.  Bishops  Roberts,  Soule,  Hed- 
ding, and  Andrew  finally  unite  in  a  Pastoral  Address, 
in  which  they  say  in  closing :  '  We  have  come  to  the 
solemn  conviction  that  the  only  safe.  Scriptural  and 
prudent  way  for  us  both  as  ministers  and  people  to 
take,  is  wholly  to  refrain  from  agitating  this  subject.' 
Spirit  of  John  Wesley !  what  would  he  have  said  at 
such  language  ?  Thus  did  those  good  men  seek  to 
quiet  and  restrain  an  aroused  Christian  conscience ; 
thus  did   they  hope   to   compromise   with  the  most 


212  CENTENNIAL   OF 

gigantic  evil  of  the  diiy.  Such  an  effort  lamentably 
failed,  as  it  should.  Compromise  with  slavery? 
Comj)romise  with  intemperance?  Compromise  with 
wealth  when  it  becomes  inordinately  selfish  and 
arrogant?  Never!  That  word  comprftmise  is  nei- 
ther Biblical  nor  Wesleyan.  It  is  always  odious. 
Methodism,  when  true  to  itself,  will  utterly  banish 
that  word  from  its  vocabulary. 

"  The  Methodist  ministry  of  New  England  had  in 
conscience  espoused  the  cause  of  the  Negro,  and  they 
would  not  longer  be  silenced.  Orange  Scott  became, 
for  a  year,  the  agent  of  an  anti-slavery  society,  by 
general  and  urgent  request,  and  went  over  the  land 
firing  the  hearts  of  the  people  against  human  bond- 
age. Whittier  tells  with  great  enthusiasm  of  a 
paragraph  that  fell  from  Scott's  lips  the  first  time 
that  he  ever  heard  him  speak.  Wendell  Phillips 
could  not  improve  upon  it.  He  said  :  'Blind  though 
we  be,  ay,  sir,  blind  as  Samson  in  the  Temple  of 
Dagon,  like  him,  if  we  can  do  no  more,  we  will 
grope  our  way  along,  feeling  for  the  pillars  of  that 
temple  which  has  been  consecrated  to  the  bloody 
rites  of  the  Moloch,  Slavery.  Grasping  their  base, 
we  will  bend  forward,  nerved  by  the  omnipotence  of 
trutii,  and  upheave  the  entire  fabric,  whose  undistin- 
guishable  ruins  shall  mark  the  spot  where  our 
grandest  moral  victory  was  proudly  won.' 

"In  June  of  1837,  Scott  attended  the  session  of 
the  Maine  Conference,  held  at  Hallowell.  He  whites 
that  'a  decided  majority  of  the  Conference  are 
abolitionists  and  the  minority  are  generally  looking 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  21 S' 

that  way.  An  anti-slavery  society  was  formed  among 
the  preachers,  consisting  of  seventy-five  or  eighty 
members.'  He  also  reports  that  'New  England  is 
redeemed  so  far  as  Methodism  is  concerned.'  He 
affirms  that,  '  In  three  Eastern  Conferences  (and 
there  were  then  only  three  in  New  England)  there 
are  now  more  than  three  hundred  abolitionists.'  Dr. 
L.  D.  Barrows,  that  man  of  blessed  memory,  said  at 
the  Methodist  Convention  of  1866,  held  in  this  city  : 
'  These  New  England  Conferences  were  in  advance, 
even  of  these  New  England  States  (which  were  in 
advance  of  all  other  States)  in  putting  on  record 
their  protest  against  intemperance  and  slavery.' 

"  At  subsequent  sessions  of  these  Conferences  the 
subject  of  the  slave  is  first  and  most  earnest.  The 
ministers  must  and  will  be  heard.  Delegates  to 
General  Conference  are  selected  from  the  most  radi- 
cal abolitionists.  At  the  General  Conference  the 
delegates  from  New  England  unceasingly  press  the 
Church  to  take  solemn  and  unequivocal  action  in 
favor  of  abolition.  Indeed,  New  England  Method- 
ism seems  to  have  been  the  only  type  that  could 
neither  be  threatened  nor  cajoled  into  subordination 
to  the  slave-oligarch3^  It  was  finallytproposed,  in 
the  case  of  Bishop  Andrew,  at  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  1844,  to  defer  action  for  a  quadrennium,  and 
to  permit  the  slave-holding  bishop  to  exercise  his 
Episcopal  functions  for  four  years  more  ;  but  the 
delegates  from  New  England,  to  a  man,  violently 
opposed  such  a  humiliating  proposition,  until  they 
defeated  it.     Thus  loyally  and   heroically  did  New 


214  CENTENNIAL   OF 

England  Methodism  espouse  the  cause  of  the  Negro 
until  victory  came.  I  had  intended  gratefully  to  call 
the  roll  of  the  '  worthies,'  but  even  this  is  not  pos- 
sible. 

"It  was  not  an  easy,  play-day  struggle.  It  cost 
something,  as  all  reform  does.  Ay,  it  cost  much. 
They  had  trial  of  cruel  mockings  and  scourgings, 
yea,  moreover,  of  bonds  and  imprisonments  ;  of  whom 
the  world  was  not  worthy ;  but  they  did  not  fail. 

"  '  They  never  fail  who  die 
In  a  great  cause.     Tlie  block  may  soak  their  gore; 
Their  heads  may  sodden  in  the  sun,  their  limbs 
Be  stnmg  to  city  gates  and  castle  walls; 
But  still  their  spirit  walks  abroad.     Though  years 
Elapse,  and  others  share  as  dark  a  doom, 
They  but  augment  the  deep  and  sweeping  thoughts 
Which  overpower  all  others,  and  conduct 
The  world,  at  last,  to  freedom.' 

"I  could  not  forgive  myself,  much  less  would  you 
forgive  nie,  should  this  brief  sketch  close  without  tlie 
grateful  mention  of  one  name.  In  this  presence, 
with  this  topic,  in  this  church,  that  name  has  already 
been  upon  every  lip.  Paul  was  no  more  called  to 
the  Apostleship  of  the  Gentiles,  than  was  Gilbert 
Haven  to  bt  the  Apostle  of  the  Negro.  Haven  lived 
for  the  black  man,  spoke  for  him,  dared  for  him, 
suffered  and  died  for  him.  He  was  tlie  Negro's  best 
friend,  tlie  most  sincere  and  self-sacrificing  advocate 
and  helper.  '  When  the  conscience  of  our  Methodism 
became  sluorfjish  in  this  cause,  then  with  tremendous 
energy  he  awoke  it  to  sensitiveness,  and  lashed  it 
into  vigorous  action.     He  died  before  his  full  work 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  215 

was  done !  His  course  best  marks  the  attitude  of 
tlie  Church  towards  the  Negro,  since  the  day  of  his 
freedom.  In  that  memorable  transfiguration  day  at 
Maiden,  he  was  best  comforted  in  the  thought  that 
*  The  Lord  will  not  find  fault  with  me  for  my  work 
in  the  South.'  His  undying  affection  for  tlie  Negro 
finds  expression  in  the  request :  '  Let  some  of  my 
colored  friends  help  also  to  carry  me  to  the  grave.' 
And  his  last  most  urgent  and  solemn  message  to 
New  England  Methodism  —  never  more  needed  to 
be  heard  than  now  —  was  this:  'Stand  by  the  colored 
man  when  I  am  gone.' 

"Sumner  dying  cried:  'Take  care  of  my  Civil 
Rights  Bill.' 

"  It  is  scorned,  rejected,  trodden  under  foot  by 
arrogant  men.  Will  not  New  England  heed  the 
dying  words  of  these  immortal  defenders  of  '  Our 
Brother  in  Black?'" 

Rev.  Dr.  Daniel  Steele,  rising  upon  the  floor  from 
the  audience,  said:  "Last  Tuesday  was  the  fifty- 
fifth  anniversary  of  the  Boston  mob.  Every  daily 
paper  in  the  city  defended  it.  Every  religious  paper 
apologized  for  it,  but  two.  One  of  them  is  now 
obsolete,  The  Neiv  England  Spectator.  The  other 
was  Zion's  Herald.  That  condemned  it.  I  have  the 
statement  in  the  Life  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison  by 
his  sons." 

Franklin  Rand,  Esq.,  former  publisher  of  Zion's 
Herald,  said  :  "I  noticed  an  omission  in  Dr.  Sawyer's 
admirable  address.  I  would  like  to  hear  him  explain 
a  little.     Many  did  understand  it,  but  I  presume  all 


216  CENTENNIAL  OP 

did  not.  I  wish  he  would  speak  of  the  limitations 
of  the  great  authority  which  he  claims  for  the 
Bishops,  which  he  justified.  I  want  him  to  explain 
to  the  audience  that  there  is  a  limitation,  or  revis- 
ion, to  which  they  are  subject  in  the  General  Con- 
ference." 

Dr.  Sawyer  said :  "  The  question  that  Brother 
Rand  has  asked  of  me  requires  me  to  say  a  word 
with  reference  to  a  possible  corrective  of  the  great 
authority  of  the  Bishops,  in  the  matter  of  making  the 
appointments.  They  are  subject  to  being  reviewed 
in  their  action  in  this  matter  by  the  General  Confer- 
ence, the  highest  court  of  appeal  in  our  Church. 
There  is  a  Committee  on  the  Episcopacy,  and  there 
is  also  a  Committee  on  the  Itinerancy.  And  with 
the  aid  of  those  two  Committees,  all  wrongs,  if  there 
be  any,  are  likely  to  be  righted.  There  is  one  word 
that  I  desire  to  say,  which  I  omitted  accidentally: 
The  real  heroes  of  the  days  when  we  had  a  two-year 
rule  were  the  wives  of  the  Methodist  Preachers." 

The  Chairman  said :  "  Let  us  arise  and  sing,  — 

"'Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul.'" 

After  the  singing,  the  Chairman  said:  "A  very 
intimate  friend  of  mine  in  New  York,  whom  I  have 
had  occasion  to  meet,  very  often  spoke  to  me  of  his 
pastor,  and  I  began  to  take  a  great  deal  of  interest 
in  his  pastor ;  and,  later,  when  I  read  in  the  papers 
of  the  heroic  and  successful  fight  before  the  New 
York  Legislature,  in  defeating  the  Bill,  innocent 
enough  in  its  title,  '  The  Freedom  of  Worship  Bill,' 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  217 

the  Bill  really  meaning  that  the  Catholics  wished  to 
obtain  control  of  the  non-sectarian  institutions  of 
the  city,  —  when  I  read  in  the  papers  of  the  heroic 
fight,  I  naturally  had  not  only  a  great  regard  for 
that  pastor,  but  I  had  a  profound  respect  for  him  as 
well,  and  this  same  clergyman  is  to  speak  to  us  on 
'Methodism  and  the  Social  Questions  of  the  Day.' 
I  have  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  you  the  Rev. 
Dr.  J.  M.  King,  of  New  York." 

Dr.  King  said :  "  Mr.  President  and  brethren : 
The  importance  of  Methodism  in  human  history 
consists  in  the  fact  that  with  it  dawned  a  better  day 
for  humanity  in  a  work  of  God,  by  a  revelation  and 
an  inspiration  of  a  new  divine  purpose,  to  promote 
the  renovation  and  salvation  of  the  race.  Dean 
Stanley  said,  at  the  unveiling  of  the  tablet  in  West- 
minster Abbey,  in  1870,  to  the  memory  of  John  and 
Charles  Wesley,  that  they  'preached  those  great 
effects  which  have  never  since  died  out  in  English 
Christendom.'  And  on  another  occasion, '  The  Meth- 
odist movement  in  both  its  branches,  Arminian  and 
Calvinistic,  has  molded  the  character  of  the  English- 
speaking  Protestantism  of  the  world.'  This  great 
writer  and  thinker  certainly  responds  afhrmatively 
to  Tyerman's  question  in  his  introduction  to  his 
'  Life  of  John  Wesley  : '  '  Is  it  not  a  truth  that  Meth- 
odism is  the  greatest  fact  in  the  history  of  the 
church? ' 

"The  founders  of  Methodism  originally  designed 
to  mold  the  characters  of  men,  and  thus  shape  their 
relationships  to  God  and  man.     They  sought  to  make 


218  CENTENNIAL  OF 

men  better  by  inducing  them  to  lead  lives  that 
would  illustrate  their  creeds.  Orthodoxy  has  never 
been  the  boasted  conservator  of  the  inner  life  of 
Methodism,  but  the  spiritual  life  has  preserved  its 
orthodoxy,  and  that  often  despite  the  untutored  con- 
dition of  its  preachers.  In  New  England,  Method- 
ism has  rolled  away  the  doctrinal  stone  that  sealed 
the  tombs  of  men  '  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins.'  Not 
long  before  Methodism  entered  New  England,  men 
must  be  members  of  the  church  in  order  to  vote  or 
to  hold  office.  This  reduced  religion  to  a  form  and 
expelled  principle ;  it  prepared  men,  in  a  certain 
sense,  for  society  and  business,  but  not  for  heaven. 
In  the  Calvinistic  churches  personal  experience  was 
not  considered  a  necessary  qualification  for  the  min- 
istry and  the  exercise  of  church  official  functions. 
Presbyterian  synods  determined  that  all  baptized 
persons,  not  heretical  or  scandalous,  should  be  per- 
mitted to  partake  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and,  if  edu- 
cated for  the  purpose,  should  be  admitted  to  tlie 
ministry.  Public  ministerial  service  and  private 
character  were  not  required  to  be  in  harmony.  Meth- 
odism here  changed  social  conditions  by  changing 
relieious  conditions.  Evervwhere  and  always  this 
had  been  and  must  be  in  the  order  of  cause  and 
effect. 

"  The  aggressive  preaching,  by  men  who  awfully 
believed  them,  of  the  fundamental  Scriptural  doc- 
trines as  accepted  by  ^Methodism,  has  done  much  to 
change  social  conditions,  and,  honestly  employed, 
will  yet  change  the  face  of  society.     The  following 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  219 

doctrines,  briefly  stated,  liave  been  the  powers 
employed :  free  will,  placing  the  responsibility  of 
sin  on  the  sinner  ;  unlimited  atonement,  opening  free 
salvation  to  all ;  gracious  ability,  encouraging  and 
leading  the  sinner  to  faith ;  Witness  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  leading  the  convert  to  communion  with  God ; 
possible  apostasy,  warning  him  to  '  hold  fast  the  pro- 
fession of  his  faith,'  with  the  assurance  of  present 
salvation ;  entire  sanctification,  inspiring  him  to 
press  on  to  every  height  of  holiness.  Is  it  questioned 
whether  doctrinal  statement  is  needed  in  changing 
human  character?  No  permanent  betterment  of 
society  politically,  socially,  or  religiously  was  ever 
effected  in  any  other  way.  Dr.  Tyng  said  at  the 
Evangelical  Alliance  meeting  in  London:  'I  came 
from  a  land  where  you  might  as  well  forget  the 
proud  oaks  that  tower  in  our  forests,  the  glowing 
Capitol  we  liave  erected  in  the  centre  of  our  hills,  or 
the  principles  of  truth  and  liberty  we  endeavor  to 
disseminate,  as  to  forget  the  influence  of  Methodism, 
and  the  political,  social,  and  religious  benefits  we 
have  secured  thereby.'  And  Dr.  Baird  calls  Method- 
ism, 'The  most  powerful  element  in  the  religious 
prosperity  of  the  United  States,  as  well  as  one  of  the 
firmest  pillars  of  our  civil,  social,  and  religious  insti- 
tutions.' The  historian  Bancroft  says;  'The  Meth- 
odists were  the  pioneers  of  religion ;  the  breath  of 
liberty  has  wafted  their  messages  to  the  masses 
of  the  people,  encouraged  them  to  collect  white  and 
black  in  church  or  greenwood  for  counsel  in  Divine 
love  and  the  full  assurance  of  faith,  and  carried  their 


220  CENTENNIAL  OF 

consolations  and  songs  and  prayers  to  the  farthest 
cabins  of  the  wilderness.'  Is  this  relatively  as  ex- 
tensively true  of  us  as  it  was  when  the  historian 
penned  this  sentence? 

"The  principal  social  questions  of  the  day  may  be 
classified  as  follows,  for  the  purposes  of  discussion : 
1.  Scientific  and  Christian  Sociology;  2.  Remedial 
Appliances;  3.  The  Southern  Race  Question;  4. 
The  Condition  of  Womanhood;  5.  Marriage  and 
Divorce  ;  6.  Temperance  and  Prohibition ;  7.  Com- 
mon and  Higher  Education ;  8.  The  Problem  of 
Wealth  and  the  Laborer;  9.  The  Attitude  of  the 
Pulpit ;  10.  The  Sovereign  Remedy  for  all  abnormal 
Conditions. 

"Prof.  Sumner  says:  'The  function  of  science  is 
to  investigate  truth.  Science  is  colorless  and  imper- 
sonal. It  investigates  the  force  of  gravity,  and 
finds  out  the  laws  of  that  force,  and  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  weal  or  woe  of  men  under  the  opera- 
tion of  the  law.'  But  there  is  such  a  science  as 
Christian  Sociology.     Dr.  Stuckenberg  says :  — 

"  '  The  following  schedule  is  believed  to  contain  a  complete  classi- 
fication of  all  the  possible  social  relations  of  the  Christian:  1.  The 
family,  inchuling  husband  and  wife,  parents  and  children,  brothers 
and  sisters,  and  more  distant  relatives;  also  other  members  of  the 
household,  such  as  persons  who  are  received  into  the  family  as 
members  of  it,  and  servants.  The  whole  household  is  thus  included, 
and  not  merely  the  circle  of  relatives;  and  all  the  relatives  are  in- 
cluded, whether  living  in  the  same  house  or  not.  2.  The  particu- 
lar church  to  which  the  Christain  belongs,  and  religious  associa- 
tions in  general  with  which  he  co-operates ;  his  own  denomination; 
other  denominations;  the  Christian  Church.  3.  The  social  circle 
in   which  the  Christian  moves,   including  his  social  relations  to 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  221 

friends  and  acquaintances.  4.  The  business  and  professional  rela- 
tions which  the  Christian  sustains.  5.  The  societies  or  associations, 
other  than  directly  religious,  to  which  the  Christian  beloufis, 
whether  benevolent,  literary,  scientific,  or  whatever  their  character 
may  be.  6.  Chance  contact  and  acquaintances,  as  in  travelling. 
7.  The  conununity  in  which  the  Christian  lives;  the  town  or  the 
neighborhood,  including  the  political  relations  to  the  precinct, 
ward,  county,  or  district  in  which  he  votes.  8.  The  State  and 
nation  to  which  the  Christian  belongs.  9.  Other  nations  and  the 
world.' 

"The  author  of  'Moral  Aspects  of  Social  Ques- 
tions '  says :  — 

** '  Social  science,  as  well  as  Christianity,  recognizes  the  fact 
that  men  are  in  a  condition  of  disorder  and  distress.  Its  main- 
spring is  the  desire  to  relieve  existing  evils.  The  lines  on  which 
its  work  has  chiefly  run  are  these:  1.  The  study  of  sanitary  laws 
with  a  view  to  the  prevention  of  disease.  2.  The  study  of  the 
conditions  of  social  vice  in  the  interests  of  public  morality.  3. 
The  study  of  the  phenomena  of  crime  and  of  the  methods  of  re- 
straint and  reformation  and  prevention.  4.  The  study  of  jurispru- 
dence, in  all  its  branches,  with  the  hope  of  making  the  laws  more 
simple  and  more  just.  5.  The  comparison  and  criticism  of  methods 
of  education.  6.  The  investigation  of  the  causes  of  pauperism. 
7.  The  examination  of  the  whole  structure  of  society,  to  discover, 
if  possible,  whether  it  is  organized  on  right  principles;  and  what 
hindrances,  political,  economical,  or  customary,  are  in  the  way  of 
its  welfare. 

" '  The  realm  of  social  science  is  thus  seen  to  be  a  broad  one 
and  its  purpose  a  high  one;  and  the  close  relation  between  social 
science  and  Christianity  at  once  becomes  manifest.  They  have  a 
common  field  of  operations;  the  lines  on  which  they  are  working 
are  parallel.  Christianity  takes  thought  for  the  welfare  of  men 
beyond  this  life,  while  social  science  does  not;  Christianity  reaches 
out  after  the  ignorant  and  degraded  in  other  lands,  while  social 
science  cares  only  for  those  at  home;  Christianity  concerns  itself 
directly  and  primarily  with  individual  character,  while  social 
science  studies  men  in  masses.  The  range  of  the  one  is  therefore 
broader  than  the  other;  but  as  far  as  social  science  goes,  Chris- 


222  CENTENNIAL   OF 

tianity  goes  with  it;  there  is  no  end  proposed  by  the  former  which 

the  latter  is  not  seeking  to  promote.  The  relation  of  social  sci- 
ence to  Christianity  is,  in  fact,  the  relation  of  the  offspring  to  the 
parent.    Social  science  is  the  child  of  Christianity.' 

"  Christianity  gives  the  spirit,  but  not  the  science, 
of  a  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  equitable  dis- 
tribution of  wealth.  Its  relationship  is  the  same  to 
other  problems  —  it  respects  and  defends  every  man's 
rights  because  he  is  a  man.  It  unmistakably  teaches 
that  the  right  of  propert}^  is  simply  the  right  of  a 
steward  to  discharge  his  trust  without  interference. 
John  Bascom  says :  '  The  facts  of  sociology  are  the 
most  interesting  and  the  most  complicated  anywhere 
offered  to  attention  ;  they  are  the  most  interesting 
as  they  pertain  to  the  higher  development  of  the 
higher  life  ;  they  are  the  most  complicated  as  gather- 
ing up  and  combining  all  other  lines  of  action  and 
as  in  many  ways  indirectly  affected  by  them.' 

"  Customs  may  be  divided  into  social,  religious,  and 
civil  customs.  Social  customs  may  be  divided  into 
those  which  pertain  to  the  family,  to  classes,  and  to 
general  intercourse.  The  family  is  the  unit  of  or- 
ganization in  human  society,  and  custom  is  its  ruler. 
Class  distinctions  next  follow,  with  their  tyrannical 
customs,  erecting  barriers  to  individual  action.  Then 
in  regular  succession  appear  the  customs  which  con- 
trol the  social  intercourse  of  different  classes.  From 
these  three  germs  spring  all  the  social  questions 
demanding  solution  by  every  lover  of  his  kind. 

"  The  socialist  Schaeffle  says :  '  Socialists  pro- 
nounce the  Church  to  be  a  police  institution  in  the 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  223 

hands  of  capital,  and  that  it  cheats  the  proletariat 
with  bills  of  exchange  on  heaven ;  it  deserves  to 
perish.'  Severe  this  is  ;  but  is  not  the  Church  some- 
times too  conservative  toward  evils  ?  Does  it  not 
pretty  easily  adjust  itself  to  existing  and  question- 
able social  conditions? 

"  All  social  movements  left  to  simply  natural 
tendencies  irresistibly  move  toward  tyranny.  The 
tyranny  of  numbers  is  just  as  pernicious  and  more 
difficult  of  correction  than  individual  tyranny.  Many 
social  questions  are  solved  through  law  and  public 
opinion,  and  these  are  formulated  and  controlled 
through  the  reason  and  conscience  of  man. 

"  Political  parties  are,  in  this  republic,  one  of  the 
chief  means  of  gathering,  consolidating,  and  extend- 
ing a  social  and  political  tendency,  and  these  are 
usually  inseparable  from  each  other  ;  yet  back  of 
these  is  a  power  mightier  than  they,  although  grudg- 
ingly recognized  by  professional  politicians. 

"  Godless  socialism,  in  all  its  thoughts,  its  hopes, 
its  fears,  its  equity,  and  its  duty,  rests  on  materialism. 
But  the  Christian  religion  and  the  socialism  it  incul- 
cates rest  in  the  nature  of  man  and  in  the  spiritual 
laws  which  are  the  thoughts  of  God  concerning  man 
as  a  being  stamped  with  an  infinite  destiny,  the 
trend  of  which  is  determined  by  faith  in  the  divine 
thoughts.  Sociology  not  animated  by  faith  is  a 
science  without  a  God.  The  spirit,  character,  and 
teachings  of  Christ  can  alone  bring  order  out  of  a 
social  chaos,  because  they  furnish  the  conditions  of 
a  perfect  social  state  by  the  regeneration  of  personal 
character. 


224  CENTENNIAL   OF 

"  Methodism,  in  its  gospel  work,  must  attempt  the 
solution  of  social  questions,  because  personal  ques- 
tions and  all  questions  affecting  personal  interest 
will  find  their  answer  in  the  gospel.  The  Christian 
is  Christ's  gospel  unto  men,  and  in  liiin  the  world 
has  a  right  to  expect  to  read  Christ  and  His  truths. 
His  spirit  must  be  controlled  by  a  passion  for  human- 
ity which  makes  real  the  brotherhood  of  man  to 
intellect,  heart,  and  will.  Christianity  is  designed 
and  adapted  to  produce  a  perfect  system  of  human 
society  by  evolving  a  perfect  manhood  marked  with 
the  highest  excellence  as  personified  in  Christ,  and, 
by  the  order  of  its  being,  loving  the  happiness  of  all 
its  kin.  Honest  socialism  blindly  yearns  after  liberty 
and  equality.  Let  the  Church  of  Christ  meet  this 
yearning  with  the  supply  which  Christ  furnishes, 
and  godless  socialism  will  become  godly.  There  is 
no  gospel  but  that  of  the  fatherhood  of  God  and 
the  brotherhood  of  man.  Any  law  for  making  man 
healthy  in  body  and  soul  that  is  not  based  upon  such 
gospel,  is  not  remedial  because  it  is  not  divine. 

"  What  has  been,  and  what  is,  the  relation  of 
Methodism  to  the  social  questions  of  the  day?  I 
suppose  the  purpose  of  this  gathering  to  be  not 
only  to  review  past  history  and  indulge  in  congratu- 
lations, but  to  look  with  a  candidly  critical  spirit 
into  the  needs  that  face  us,  and  to  meet  them  with 
honesty  and  courage.  Methodism  has  no  relation, 
and  never  had,  to  the  social  questions  of  the  day 
other  than  its  relation  as  a  disseminator  of  the  gospel 
of  truth  as  the  remedy  for  all  evils  ;  an  enlightened 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  225 

expediency  in  the  method  of  applying  the  remedy  is 
all  that  is  delegated  to  us.  While  Methodism  has 
done  much  in  solving  the  social  problems  in  America, 
it  has  not  been  noted  for  its  alliance  with  the  dis- 
tinctively social  classes  in  society. 

"It  is  not  my  purpose  to  discuss  Methodism's 
catalogued  and  prohibited  social  dissipations  and 
indulgences,  for  the  reason  that,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  list  is  not  exhaustive  enough  to  be  a  safe  guide  ; 
and,  on  the  other,  that  its  attempted  minuteness  dis- 
tracts the  attention  from  the  broader  principles  of 
righteousness,  which  once  accepted  by  man,  he  would 
not  be  liable  to  dwell  upon  the  roll-call  of  prohibi- 
tions, but  would  revel  in  the  liberty  of  privilege. 
In  my  judgment  the  social  problems  pressing  upon 
us  will  not  be  solved  by  special  legislation  of  a  pro- 
hibitive character.  More  gospel  and  less  law  of 
human  enactment  will  make  sure  of  heartier  and 
broader  obedience  to  law.  We  are  in  peril  of 
disgusting  men  by  special  legislative  prohibitions 
prominently  pronounced,  instead  of  winning  them  by 
privileges  vividly  portrayed,  following  closely  upon 
the  preaching  of  the  unamended  divine  law.  The 
'  thus  saith  the  Lord  '  kind  of  law  cannot  be  too 
uncompromisingly  proclaimed. 

"  These  are  notably  times  of  remedial  appliances. 
Hospitals  and  dispensaries,  industrial  schools  and 
nurseries,  and  other  civilizing  agencies  are  all  inci- 
dents and  instruments  in  the  solution  of  these 
problems,  and  an  enlightened  and  consecrated  expe- 
diency will   dictate    the   time   and   place   for   their 


226  CENTENNIAL   OF 

employment.  Methodism  has  done  comparatively 
little  in  these  lines  as  yet,  although  its  people  have 
shared  largely  in  the  benefactions  of  these  institu- 
tions furnished  by  the  beneficence  of  others. 

"  The  Southern  race  question  is  a  social  question 
more  largely  than  anything  else,  and  although  our 
relationship  to  it  has  been  an  earnest  one,  and  in  a 
measure  creditable,  still  we  are  not  altogether  blame- 
less here.  Expediency  wedded  to  sentimentalism 
yet  too  often  strangles  right  and  justice. 

"Womanhood  has  been  largely  emancipated  by 
Methodism  from  the  slavery  of  an  assumed  inferi- 
ority, and  from  being  the  plaything  of  passion,  and 
granted  rights  and  privileges  and  broad  opportuni- 
ties for  usefulness.  In  leading  souls  to  Christ;  in 
self-sacrificing  ministrations  to  the  diseased,  the  poor 
and  the  sorrow-stricken;  in  mission-fields;  in  mold- 
ing the  character  of  youth;  in  temperance,  and  in 
all  reforms  based  on  the  well-being  of  man  ;  and  in 
mitigating  the  horrors  of  war,  genuine  Christian 
womanhood,  since  Methodism  was  given  of  God,  has 
exalted  the  gospel  ideal  of  stewardship,  and  that 
without  unsexing  itself,  or  trenching  upon  the  well- 
defined,  natural  and  Scriptural  prerogatives  of  man. 
In  the  lines  of  industrial,  social,  and  educational 
action  further  emancipation  must  come.  So  far  as 
the  admission  of  women  to  legislative  work  in  the 
Church  and  the  logical  issues  of  such  admission  may 
be  considered  social  questions,  Methodism  is  in  the 
midst  of  the  agony  of  determining  the  relation, 
and  our  Church  was   never    called   upon   to    settle 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  227 

a  question  more  momentous  or    far-reaching  in  its 
results. 

"In  theory  and  in  practice  our  Church  is  Scriptu- 
rally  right  on  the  questions  of  marriage  and  divorce. 
Marriage  is  accounted  a  divine  ordinance.  The 
Discipline  declares  :  — 

" '  No  divorce,  except  for  adultery,  shall  be  regarded  by  the 
Church  as  lawful  ;  and  no  minister  shall  solemnize  marriage  in  any 
case  where  there  is  a  divorced  wife  or  husband  living;  but  this  rule 
shall  not  apply  to  the  innocent  party  to  a  divorce  for  the  cause  of 
adultery,  nor  to  divorced  parties  seeking  to  be  reunited  in  mar- 
riage.' 

"  On  the  questions  of  temperance  and  prohibition 
the  standard  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  is 
easily  the  leader  of  the  hosts  of  reform.  The  Disci- 
pline declares,  and  no  resolutions  of  Conferences 
have  improved  upon  it  in  either  letter  or  spirit,  — 

"  'Temperance,  in  its  broader  meaning,  is  distinctively  a  Chris- 
tian virtue,  enjoined  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  It  implies  a  subordi- 
nation of  all  the  emotions,  passions,  and  appetites,  to  the  control  of 
reason  and  conscience.  Uietetically,  it  means  a  wise  use  of  suita- 
ble articles  of  food  and  drink,  with  entire  abstinence  from  such  as 
are  known  to  be  hurtful.  Both  science  and  human  experience 
agree  with  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  condemning  all  alcoholic  bever- 
ages as  being  neither  useful  nor  safe.  The  business  of  manufac- 
turing and  selling  such  liquors  is  also  against  the  principles  of 
morality,  political  economy,  and  the  public  welfare.  AVe,  therefore, 
regard  voluntary  total  abstinence  as  the  true  ground  of  personal 
temperance,  and  complete  legal  prohibition  of  the  traffic  in  alco- 
holic drinks  as  the  duty  of  civil  government.  We  heartily  approve 
of  all  lawful  and  Christian  methods  to  save  society  from  the  mani- 
fold and  grievous  evils  resulting  from  intemperance,  and  earnestly 
advise  our  people  to  co-operate  in  all  measures  which  may  seem  to 
them  wisely  adapted  to  secure  that  end.     We  refer  to  our  General 


228  CENTENNIAL   OF 

llulc  on  this  subject,  and  affectionately  urge  its  strict  observance 
by  all  our  members.  Finally,  we  are  fully  persuaded  that,  under 
God,  hope  for  the  ultimate  success  of  the  temperance  reform  rests 
chiefly  upon  the  combined  and  sanctified  influence  of  the  family, 
the  Church,  and  the  state.' 

"One  of  tlie  most  potent  factors  in  the  solution 
of  social  problems  in  a  republic  is  found  in  a  free 
common  school  system,  with  instruction  and  instruct- 
ors of  such  high  character  as  to  Americanize  the 
children  of  foreign  birth  or  parentage,  and,  by  pro- 
cesses of  digestion  and  assimilation,  make  them  a 
healthful  part  of  the  body  politic.  Thus  only  can 
the  dangerously  heterogeneous  be  made  safely  homo- 
geneous. The  late  Archbishop  Spaulding  declared, 
in  my  presence,  that  if  the  free  common  school  of 
this  country  was  preserved,  it  would  be  principally 
due  to  the  loyalty  of  Methodism  to  the  system.  We 
always  have  been  loyal  to  it,  and  intelligent  patriot- 
ism demands  a  continuance  of  that  loyalty,  with  a 
jealous  care  for  the  improvement  and  perfection  of 
the  system.  At  no  period  in  the  histoiy  of  the 
republic  has  the  demand  for  uncompromising  courage 
been  more  imperative  in  this  direction  than  at  the 
present. 

"But  what  of  our  relationship  to  that  higher  form 
of  education,  where  teachers  are  prepared  to  handle 
great  social  questions?  The  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  came  tardily  to  this  higher  educational  work. 
In  our  burning  zeal  to  propagate  the  gospel,  we 
seem  to  have  overlooked  what  we  esteemed  minor 
interests.     By  the  blessing  of  God,  we  have  pressed 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  229 

into  every  open  door,  and  planted  our  doctrines  and 
churches  in  every  neighborhood  throughout  the 
entire  land.  Despite  gloomy  facts  in  our  early 
history,  it  cannot,  however,  be  alleged  by  any  well- 
informed  person  that  American  Methodism  has, 
during  the  last  half-century  at  least,  been  disregard- 
ful  of  the  common  education  of  the  multitudinous 
masses  she  has  gathered  into  her  communion.  The 
distinguished  Edward  Everett  introduced  his  address 
upon  education,  at  Middletown,  over  thirty  years 
since,  by  this  statement:  'The  Methodist  Church, 
during  the  preceding  twenty-five  years,  had  accom- 
plished more  for  common  popular  education  than 
any  other  Christian  denomination.'  In  vindication 
of  her  earlier  and  more  primitive  attitude  with  refer- 
ence to  education.  Dr.  Stevens,  the  eloquent  historian 
of  Methodism,  observes,  — 

"  '  Methodism  was  cradled  in  a  university,  thougli  it  was  born 
in  Epworth  rectory.  It  could  not,  therefore,  be  indifferent,  much 
less  hostile,  to  the  education  of  the  people,  though  its  poverty  and 
absorption  in  more  directly  moral  directions  for  their  elevation 
did  not  at  first  allow  much  scope  for  its  educational  measures. 
Wesley,  however,  never  lost  sight  of  such  measures  ;  and  it  is  an 
interesting  fact  that,  in  the  year  which  is  recognized  as  the  epoch 
of  Methodism,  the  date  of  its  first  field  preaching,  and  among  the 
miserable  people  where  the  latter  began,  it  also  began  the  first  of  its 
literary  institutions.  In  its  public  capacity  it  has  always  zealously 
promoted  practical  knowledge  and  educational  institutions.' 

"  We  need  to  learn  the  lesson  of  concentration  of 
our  higher  educational  interests,  until  the  large 
names  given  to  our  institutions  when  they  were 
baptized  shall  represent  appliances  and  opportunities 


230  CENTENNIAL  OF 

as  large  as  the  name.  It  must  be  conceded  that 
Boston  is  making  commendable  progress  in  the 
direction  of  genuine  university  appliances. 

"The  problem  of  wealth  and  the  laborer  faces  us 
whichever  way  we  turn.  Methodism  is  a  revival  of 
the  spirit  and  power  of  Christian  truth  and  life. 
Warm  and  energetic,  or  tender  and  subdued,  its 
whole  system  of  worship  and  action,  instinct  with  a 
joyous  and  contagious  life,  the  people  take  to. 
Springing  from  them,  our  sympathies  are  with  them. 
It  lias  taught  the  churches  that  it  is  not  the  mission 
of  Christianity  to  hold  the  rich  within  its  communion 
any  way,  but  to  hold  them  on  the  same  conditions 
as  it  holds  the  poor.  Better  without  them,  if  they 
degrade  our  standards  or  attempt  to  dictate  our 
religious  policy.  Whenever  and  wheiever  it  has 
attempted  to  accommodate  itself  to  the  liberal  indul- 
gences of  so-called  polite  society,  it  has  lost  its 
power,  and  presented  a  pitiable  spectacle  to  the 
world ;  and  whenever  its  conspicuous  men,  in  or  out 
of  official  position,  have  paid  court  and  tribute  to 
men  of  wealth  as  such,  they  have  compromised  the 
spirit  and  mission  of  Methodism  before  the  world. 
Methodism  has  largely  adiiered  to  its  original  minis- 
try, and  while  its  poor  have,  in  many  instances, 
become  rich,  it  has  not,  as  a  rule,  allowed  them  to 
divert  it  from  its  primary  and  Christ-like  purpose  of 
reaching  the  multitudes. 

"  But  Methodism,  we  fear,  is  losing  something  of 
the  fearlessness  with  which  it  once  declared  the  Law 
of  God  against  individual  vices  and  against  the  vices 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  231 

of  society.  With  corruption  in  the  Church,  it  is 
powerless  to  cure  the  corruption  without.  The 
world  too  often  has  excuses  for  laughing  at  the 
reproaches  of  the  Church  against  its  follies  and  its 
sins.  Religious,  moral,  and  social  forces  are  getting 
more  and  more  cowardly,  I  fear,  in  the  presence  of 
giant  monopoly  and  money  power.  What  are  we 
doing  about  it?  The  legislative  and  advisory  action 
of  Methodism  on  almost  all  the  social  questions  of  the 
day  is  of  a  commendably  high  standard.  But  its  prac- 
tical application  of  its  legislative  and  advisory  action 
needs,  in  some  particulars,  a  new  baptism  of  courage. 
"Methodism  is  not  meeting  the  social  question 
involved  in  the  problem  of  increasing  wealth  and  its 
relation  to  the  laborer  who  largely  produced  it. 
Labor  has  no  rights,  but  the  laborer  has.  What  is 
an  equitable  adjustment  of  advantages  between  the 
rich  and  the  poor?  President  Hill  says:  'The  ex- 
alted idea  of  man  that  went  out  from  Judea  to  change 
the  institutions  of  men  was  alone  sufficient  to  recon- 
struct society  and  inaugurate  a  new  epoch  in  the 
history  of  the  world.'  Love  of  wealth  was  the 
teaching  of  paganism,  but  the  love  of  man  is  the 
teaching  of  Christianity.  Cicero  said :  '  All  who 
live  by  mercenary  labor  do  a  degrading  business;  no 
noble  sentiment  can  come  from  a  workshop.'  The 
sentiment  that  came  forth  from  the  workshop  of  the 
carpenter  of  Nazareth  gave  a  new  conception  of  man. 
It  taught  humanity  that  it  was  possible  to  endure 
poverty  without  despair,  and  that  richos  might  be 
accumulated  and  used  without  sensuality  and  pride. 


232  CENTENNIAL   OP 

"  We  are  not  contributing  our  legitimate  part  to 
the  successful  solution  of  these  great  social  problems, 
when  we  consider  our  origin,  our  history,  our  theol- 
ogy, and  our  numbers.  We  are  making  compara- 
tively slight  impression  upon  the  social  conditions  of 
cities,  and  the  centres  of  populations  of  composite 
character.  We  spend  too  much  time  in  explaining 
the  reasons  why  we  fail,  and  assert  that  conditions 
have  changed,  as  though  that  fact  relieved  us  from 
obligation  to  forward  the  gospel  remedy  for  all 
maladies  and  all  wrongs.  After  all,  no  change  of 
conditions  can  be  conceived  that  can  challenge  the 
success  of  the  gospel,  unless  we  confess  that  the 
gospel  is  not  designed  to  be  a  universal  remedy  to 
save  the  race.  The  substance  and  power  of  Chris- 
tianity are  not  altered  by  changes  in  times,  places, 
races,  classes,  climates,  or  governments.  The  only 
recognition  given  to  social  distinctions  by  prophecy 
is  that  of  smiting.  Christ  came  to  humanity,  and 
social  distinctions,  giving  root  to  social  problems,  are 
all  of  human,  and  not  of  divine,  origin  or  purpose. 
The  gospel  was  made  for  man  as  man.  Opposition 
and  antagonism  it  will  meet,  and  principally  in  social 
problems ;  but  it  is  not  a  question  of  debate  with 
those  who  have  this  gospel  committed  to  them  as 
to  whether  antagonism  shall  be  met  and  opposi- 
tion overcome,  but  how  and  when.  The  gospel  is 
not  a  thing  to  be  mended.  Its  original  power 
rested  in  the  personality  of  Christ,  and  that 
power  is  unchanged  in  the  face  of  changing  con- 
ditions. 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  233 

"  We  are  not,  to  the  extent  we  ought,  reaching  the 
very  people  to  whom  we  were  originally  sent ;  and  it 
is  among  the  common  people  —  because  they  consti- 
tute the  masses  —  that  social  problems  are  to  be 
solved ;  the  higher  classes,  so  called,  are  lifted  out 
of  the  lower  classes  by  the  lever  of  prosperity.  The 
leaven  must  be  put  in  the  lump,  and  not  on  the  crust. 

"  The  attitude  of  the  pulpit.  An  eminent  minis- 
ter, of  a  denomination  of  great  wealth,  addressing 
his  brother  ministers  recently,  said,  — 

'"Is  it  not  about  time  that  it  should  be  said  to  the  average 
preaching  fraternity  :  Gentlemen,  clear  your  minds  of  cant,  and 
try  to  realize  that  you  liave  something  more  to  do  than  to  make 
little  groups  of  men  and  women  comfortable,  by  promises  of  rest 
and  felicity  hereafter  ?  What  if  you  should  make  them  feel  very 
uncomfortable,  at  times,  by  talking  of  the  hard  stern  facts  in  the 
lives  of  the  infidel  millions  ?  Such  talk  might  prove  a  wholesome 
moral  tonic  to  the  listless  and  languid. 

"  '  There  is  urgent  need  just  now,  I  take  it,  my  Christian  brethren, 
for  such  criticism  and  rebuke  to  be  spoken  very  plainly  into  the 
ears  of  those  who  rule  in  our  synagogues.  We  are  very  busy  about 
theological  refinements,  and  in  advancing  sectarian  interests. 
Meanwhile  the  men  who  are  at  the  cranks  of  our  social  and  politi- 
cal machinery  are  grinding  out  their  projects  with  small  concern 
for  what  we  do  by  such  endeavors.  While  wealth  betakes  itself  to 
its  elegant  seclusion,  and  poverty  gathers  itself  in  appalling  masses 
in  its  neglected  and  infamous  haunts,  and  dishonesty  is  under- 
mining the  confidence  of  the  community,  and  crime  fills  house- 
holds with  horror,  a  dainty  Christianity  is  looking  on  from  a 
distance,  afraid  of  soiling  its  hands  in  the  work  of  social  regener- 
ation! These  are  not  "  smooth  things  "  to  prophesy,  I  know;  but 
"am  I  become  your  enemy  because  I  tell  you  the  truth  ? "  When 
I  think  of  the  mission  of  Christ's  religion  to  this  hard,  material 
age,  and  mark  how  little  has  been  done  to  make  it  a  felt  presence 
and  power  in  the  world,  I  marvel  that  men  can  be  so  strenuously 
occupied  with  trifles,  and  so  busy  in  barren  fields.' 


234  CENTENNIAL   OF 

"  Healthful  utterances  these  !  Needed  where  they 
were  spoken  —  needed  throughout  Protestantism. 

"  Herr  Todt  places  the  following  epigraph  at  the 
head  of  his  book  on  'Radical  German  Socialism 
and  Christianity:'  'Whoever  would  understand  the 
social  question  and  contribute  to  its  solution,  must 
have  on  his  right  hand  the  works  on  political  economy 
and  on  his  left  the  literature  of  scientific  socialism, 
and  must  keep  the  New  Testament  open  before  him. 
Political  economy  explains  the  social-anatomy,  scien- 
tific socialism  describes  the  disease,  and  the  gospel 
indicates  the  cure.'  It  is  to  be  feared  that  more 
converts  have  been  made  to  socialism  among  men 
of  Christian  education  than  to  Christianity  among 
socialists. 

"  Morality  and  legislation  give  different  definitions 
to  crime.  Morality  never  changes  its  definition  ;  but 
in  legislation,  the  crime  of  yesterday  may  be  the 
virtue  of  to-morrow.  The  law  of  God  is  never 
repealed  or  amended.  Human  enactments  vary  with 
the  sentiment  of  the  time.  Permit  me  once  again 
to  quote  from  a  Christian  sociologist :  — 

"  '  If  the  laborer  has  rights,  it  is  because  he  is  endowed  with  per- 
sonality. If  the  distribution  of  wealth  is  possible  upon  other 
grounds  than  the  rule  of  the  strongest,  it  is  because  these  personal 
rights  radiate  outward  from  the  man,  and  project  themselves  in  the 
sphere  of  properly.  If  marriage  and  the  family  are  to  be  preserved 
to  society,  it  is  through  the  recognition  of  personal  rigiits  in  the 
domestic  circle.  If  education  is  to  receive  its  perfection  in  the 
complete  unfolding  of  liuman  powers,  the  spiritual  and  moral 
nature  of  man  must  be  regarded.  If  legislation  is  to  embody  jus- 
tice and  realize  liberty,  it  must  postulate  the  doctrine  of  personal 
freedom   and   of    rights  and   duties  as  the  ground   of   freedom. 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  235 

Finally,  if  crime  is  to  be  repressed  and  extirpated,  the  moral 
regeneration  of  men  must  be  accepted  as  possible,  and  the  uni- 
versal reign  of  mechanical  necessity  must  be  denied.  The  relation 
of  Christianity  to  these  problems  is  briefly  this  :  it  carries  the 
master-key  that  unlocks  every  one  of  them;  tliat  master-key  is 
Christ's  conception  of  man. 

" '  If  ever  an  ideal  order  is  realized  by  humanity,  it  will  be 
under  the  leadership  of  the  Christian  conception  of  man,  and  will 
require  that  for  its  basis.  The  current  agitation  of  mind  over 
social  questions  is  the  best  token  that  the  hearts  and  consciences  of 
men  are  stirred  as  they  never  have  been  stirred  before.  ' 

"  The  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  Methodist 
preachers  and  press  would  furnish  our  quota  of  the 
solvent  of  all  social  questions  of  the  day,  Method- 
ism's relation  to  these  questions  is  simply  a  gospel 
relationship.  It  has  no  power  but  this.  I  sometimes 
fear  that  we  forget  this  fact,  and  virtually  adore  the 
machinery  of  the  system  which,  unless  it  be  moved 
at  full  speed,  proves  both  complicated  and  cumber- 
some. It  never  was  designed  for  freight,  but  for 
passenger  service.  The  Holy  Spirit's  abiding  pres- 
ence would  inspire  us ;  the  memory  of  His  past 
dealings  would  impel  us  ;  the  promise  of  His  assumed 
coming  would  draw  us.  We  may  be  encompassed 
about  with  Omnipotence.  When  Jesus  'ascended  on 
high.  He  led  captivity  captive,'  and  'gave  gifts  unto 
men.'  '  When  the  Comforter  is  come,  whom  I  will 
send  unto  you  from  the  Father,  He  shall  testify  of 
Me,  and  ye  also  shall  bear  witness.'  '  Ye  also.'  The 
Holy  Spirit  is  not  our  accompaniment ;  we  are  His. 
Let  the  ofifice-work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  be  more  intelli- 
gently and  more  extensively  recognized  in  religious 
effort,  as  the  sole   dependence   of   the  Church   for 


236  CENTENNIAL  OF 

effective  work.  It  will  give  tone  and  character  and 
potency  to  religious  experience,  and  heroism  and 
endurance  to  religious  zeal.  It  will  inspire  the 
thought  and  experience  of  the  priesthood  of  believ- 
ers with  its  personal  dignity  and  personal  responsi- 
bility. It  will  inspire  new  plans  and  purposes  for 
utilizing  dormant  Christian  energies,  and  Christian- 
izing the  thoughtless  and  neglected,  and  for  massing 
the  forces  of  righteousness.  Resources  of  history, 
character,  money,  machinery,  education,  numbers,  the 
press,  and  the  divine  promises,  all  are  necessary 
instruments,  but  they  are  strengthless  and  useless 
for  good,  either  singly  or  in  combination,  until  bap- 
tized by  the  Holy  Spirit ;  then,  singly,  they  take  on 
strength,  and,  massed,  they  become  as  i^mipotent  as 
God.  These  human  appliances,  wielded  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  sent  by  Christ,  shall  become,  like  Him,  sweet 
in  sympathy,  pure  in  holiness,  vital  with  love.  If  the 
saved  sons  of  Methodism  and  of  our  common  Protes- 
tantism would  put  on  the  whole  armor  of  God;  if 
all  the  daughters  of  our  Zion  would  clothe  themselves 
'with  the  beautiful  garments  of  salvation,  and,  bap- 
tized by  the  Holy  Spirit,  would  move  together  for 
the  renovation  of  a  heritage  once  uncursed  with  sin, 
no  pen  or  pencil  could  picture  the  result.  Godless 
temples  would  tumble  ;  incense  burning  to  unknown 
gods  would  be  quenched;  air  polluted  with  blasphemy 
would  be  purified ;  ignorance  would  flee  away  ;  the 
flood-gates  of  intemperance  would  be  closed;  the 
fires  of  passion  would  be  quenched ;  fountains  of 
bitter  tears  would  be  dried  up,  and  the  fatherhood  of 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  237 

God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man  would  be  realized ; 
every  hill-top  would  soon  glimmer  with  the  light  of 
truth,  and  every  valley  show  the  temple  of  our  God  ; 
in  the  wilderness  would  waters  break  out,  and  streams 
in  the  desert,  and  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord  would 
come  to  Zion  with  songs  and  everlasting  joy  upon 
their  heads,  and  sorrow  and  sighing  would  flee  away. 
Let  us  pray  as  we  sing  :  — 

"'Come,  Holy  Ghost,  our  hearts  inspire  ; 
Let  us  Thine  influence  prove; 
Source  of  the  old  prophetic  fire. 
Fountain  of  life  and  love  ! ' " 

The  Chairman  said :  "  It  is  hardly  necessary  for 
me  to  introduce  the  last  speaker  of  the  morning,  for 
one  who  has  so  well  filled  the  leading  pul|fits  of  the 
New  England  Conference  needs  no  introduction. 
Dr.  D.  H.  Ela  will  now  speak  to  you  of  '  Methodism 
in  New  England  before  Jesse  Lee.'  " 

Dr.  Ela  said :  "  Mr.  President  and  brethren.  I 
am  aware  that  there  is  a  limit  to  the  capacity  to 
enjoy  even  so  rich  a  feast  and  one  so  grandly  served 
as  that  which  we  have  been  enjoying  for  the  last 
two  days.  I  have  admired  the  endurance  and  the 
capacity  for  enjoyment  of  the  congregations.  But  I 
want  to  say  just  now,  before  I  begin,  that  my  paper 
will  have  one  merit  at  least,  if  I  have  not  mistaken. 
It  will  be  shorter  than  any  other  paper  presented, 
and  my  position  on  the  programme,  and  my  regard 
for  the  principles  of  socialism,  will  unite  to  prevent 
my  running  over  on  to  anybody's  time  this  morning. 


238  CENTENNIAL  OF 

"  The  theme  which  has  been  assigned  me  is  '  Meth- 
odism in  New  Enghind  before  Jesse  Lee.' 

"  Methodism  is  threefold  :  an  organism,  a  theology, 
an  experience.  To  the  pojjular  mind  its  polity  is 
represented  by  the  Conference  and  the  Itinerancy. 
Its  theology  is  free  salvation  to  'whosoever  will.' 
Its  shibboleth  of  experience  is  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit  and  perfect  love. 

"Methodism  in  New  England  was  planted  by  an 
itinerant  ministry,  who  came  uncalled,  nnannonnced, 
and  often  nnwelcomed,  proclaiming  their  message 
with  the  confidence  of  an  inspired  prophet;  to  flee 
sometimes  before  the  rejecting  people,  as  Elijah  fled 
before  Israel  and  Ahab ;  to  be  received  sometimes 
by  the  awakened  crowd,  like  John  Baptist,  with  the 
inquiry,  '  What  must  we  do  ?  '  The  seed  sown  took 
root  and  sprang  up  into  the  blade,  the  ear,  the  full 
corn.  The  little  class-meeting  grew  into  the  society, 
spread  out  into  the  circuit,  ripened  into  the  Confer- 
ence, and  fills  the  whole  land  as  the  one  compacted, 
organic  body. 

"Lee  came  into  New  England  a  hundred  years 
ago,  on  such  a  mission  of  aggressive  propagandism. 
He  came  as  the  apostle  of  experimental  Methodism, 
to  teach  its  theology,  and  to  establish  its  organism. 

"The  Methodism  whose  centennial  we  celebrate 
to-day,  is  this  connectional  body,  with  its  thoroughly 
elaborated  polity  and  its  carefully  defined  theology; 
vital  with  an  aggressive  propagandist  spirit,  and  fer- 
vent and  joyful  with  religious  emotion. 

"  Yet,  in  another  and  truer  sense,  these  must  be 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  239 

regarded  as  effects  rather  than  means  of  Methodism. 
There  was  a  spirit  before  there  was  a  iDody.  The 
Spirit  of  God  moved  npon  the  face  of  chaos.  Jesse 
Lee  was  the  fruit  of  Methodism  before  he  was  its 
apostle.  There  were  Methodists  before  Methodism 
appeared.  There  was  a  Methodism  before  the  Meth- 
odists came. 

"  There  were  foreshadowings  of  Methodism  in  spo- 
radic revolts  of  individuals  against  the  lifeless  form- 
alism of  religion,  the  cruel  theology  of  New  England, 
and  the  tyranny  of  church  government;  and  not 
less  were  there  foreshadowings,  in  an  awakened  spirit 
of  expectancy,  which  so  often  precedes  a  great  event, 
—  that  eastward-looking  of  the  nations  which  await 
Messiah. 

"  There  had  been  revolts  against  the  harsh  features 
of  Calvinism  all  along,  from  the  days  when  Quakers 
were  flogged  and  hanged  in  Boston,  and  Mrs.  Anne 
Hutchinson  was  driven  away  into  the  wilderness  for 
proclaiming  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  the  abiding  of 
the  Comforter  in  the  soul  of  every  believer. 

"  Methodism,  as  at  first  presented  to  the  people, 
here,  as  elsewhere,  was  neither  an  organization  nor  a 
system  of  theology.  It  was  rather  a  proclamation 
of  salvation,  full  and  free,  to  all  men.  It  was  as 
joyous  as  the  news  it  brought,  and  the  personal 
experiences  it  declared.  It  was  as  urgent  as  the 
needs  of  the  lost  sinners  to  whom  it  came.  It  could 
not  wait  for  men  to  deliberate  before  deciding.  And 
so,  having  declared  its  message  in  one  community, 
its    heralds    must   hurry  away   to    another,  equally 


240  CENTENNIAL  OF 

needy.  Thus  the  itinerancy  sprang,  unplanned,  out 
of  the  needs  of  the  people  and  the  burning  zeal 
of  the  preacher. 

"  In  this  broader  view,  Methodism  was  a  crusade 
for  the  world's  conquest,  a  propaganda  of  salvation. 
Such  a  Methodism  had  had  its  manifestations  in  the 
new  world  before  the  coming  of  Weslej-'s  followers, 
and  its  disciples  and  apostles  prepared  the  way  for, 
and  welcomed  the  coming  and  success  of,  Whitefield 
in  his  missionary  tours,  sweeping  like  a  meteor  of 
salvation  tlirough  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land. 
The  Tennents  and  their  disciples  and  fellow-laborers 
in  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  and  Edwards  with 
Brainerd  and  kindred  spirits  in  New  England,  like 
the  settled  ministers  Venn  and  Berridge  and  Fletcher 
and  others,  who  gathered  about  Wesley  in  England, 
could  not  be  restrained  within  the  narrow  bounds  of 
their  own  parishes,  but  must  go  forth  in  itinerant 
labors  in  the  regions  beyond;  a  sporadic  itinerancy, 
prophetic  of  the  later  order  which  Lee  represents. 

"Methodism  has  been  called  a  revival  of  primitive 
Christianity.  If  it  be  defined  as  a  revival,  there  was 
a  Methodism  before  the  Methodists.  So  early  as 
1720,  Jacob  Frelinghuysen,  pastor  of  the  Dutch 
Church  at  Raritan,  N.J.,  began  preaching  the  distin- 
guishing doctrines,  and  using  the  revival  methods 
of  Methodism.  Edwards  had  already,  in  1734, 
passed  through  the  first  Great  Awakening  in  North- 
ampton. And  when  Whitefield  came  to  New  Eng- 
land, in  1739-40,  he  found  not  only  welcome  from 
these  faithful  co-workers,  but  the    revival    already 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  241 

begun  in  many  places,  and  the  people  eager  every- 
where to  receive  the  gospel  message.  We  must 
discount  somewhat  from  Whitefield's  enthusiastic 
estimates  of  congregations,  as  when  he  declares  that 
he  preached  to  six  thousand  people  in  a  church  which 
could  with  difficulty  seat  twelve  hundred,  or  when 
he  estimates  his  congregation  on  Boston  Common  as 
equal  to  one-tenth  the  whole  population  of  New 
England. 

"  But,  doubtless,  he  stirred  the  whole  of  New 
England,  and  gave  a  new  and  wonderful  impulse  to 
this  work  of  revival,  though  it  did  not  originate  witli 
him,  and  was  not  limited  to  his  ministry.  Besides, 
what  were  Whitefield  and  his  work,  but  a  part  of 
New  England  Methodism  before  the  Methodists? 
It  is  in  this  very  tide  of  Calvinistic  Methodism, 
which  never  in  America  took  on  distinctive  organi- 
zation, and  whose  influence  has  been  too  little  recosf- 
nized  in  our  summaries  of  Methodism,  that  much  of 
its  larger  fruitage  ma}^  be  found.  We  may  suspect 
that  from  Whitefield's  deep  communings  with  the 
Tennents,  and  with  Edwards's  masterful  mind  and 
soul,  as  well  as  from  his  Scottish  correspondent 
Erskine,  sprang  some  of  that  Calvinistic  dogmatism 
which  led,  so  soon  after  his  return  to  England,  to  his 
break  with  Wesley,  which  he  so  heartily  repented 
later.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  we  can  only  conjec- 
ture how  much  the  zeal  and  fervor  of  Edwards  were 
quickened  by  the  inspiration  of  Whitefield. 

"  We  may  not  attempt  to  tabulate  the  results  of 
these  revivals,  and  may  simply  note  that  the  num- 


242  CENTENNIAL  OF 

bers  of  converts  in  New  England  are  variously  esti- 
mated, by  sober  historians,  at  from  twenty-five 
thousand  to  forty  thousand,  resulting  in  one  hundred 
and  fifty  new  church  organizations,  besides  the  large 
number  of  churches  created  out  of  divisions  of  old 
churches  ;  that  very  largely  the  aggressive  vitality 
of  the  Baptist  Churches  dates  from  Whitefield's 
ministry,  and  that  the  Free  Baptist  Church  was 
founded  by  a  Whitefield  convert,  whose  son,  venera- 
ble for  large  usefulness,  for  talent  and  piety,  still 
lives  in  the  superannuated  ranks  of  the  Methodist 
ministry,  in  which  he  has  spent  his  long  life. 

"  We  must  note,  too,  that  this  earlier  Methodism, 
like  the  Wesleyan,  was  attended  by  some  not  alto- 
gether wholesome  conditions  in  the  churches  affected, 
resulting  in  many  schisms,  and  the  organizing  of 
rival  churches.  Nor  were  there  wanting,  to  com- 
plete the  parallel,  strange  physical  and  mental 
phenomena.  The  wonderful  trance  of  Mrs.  Tennent, 
one  of  that  Presbyterian-Methodist  family;  the 
ecstasy  of  David  Brainerd,  and  the  rapture  of  Mrs. 
Edwards,  and  her  loss  of  physical  strength,  alternat- 
ing with  unusual  bodily  exercises,  all  remind  us  of  the 
physical  manifestations  attendant  upon  the  preaching 
of  Wesley.  The  historian  also  records,  that,  in  the 
revival  commencing  with  the  founding  of  Dartmouth 
Collesfe,  there  were  remarkable  dreams  and  visions, 
and  wonderful  experiences. 

"  The  influence  of  early  Methodism  was  felt  in  the 
New  \Yorld,  in  a  quarter  where,  perhaps,  it  would  be 
least  looked  for,  and  where  it  has  been  least  recog- 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  243 

nized,  —  in  founding  and  shaping  new  institutions 
of  learning. 

"The  great  mass  of  the  early  preachers,  unlike 
their  first  leaders,  were  not  educated  men,  and  scho- 
lastic training  has  not  characterized  the  body  of  the 
itinerant  ministry. 

"  Princeton  has  held  a  low  estimate  of  Methodist 
scholarship.  Yet  Whitefield  was  the  friend  and 
counsellor  of  the  founders  of  Log  College,  their  co- 
laborer  in  evangelistic  work,  took  Gilbert  Tennent 
along  with  him  in  his  first  visit  to  Boston,  and 
prayed  and  labored  with  them  in  the  plans  which 
resulted  in  the  establishment  of  Princeton.  Is  it 
proof  that  the  Tennents  were  Methodists,  that 
Whitefield  says  that  he  and  his  sons  are  secretly 
despised  by  the  synod  generally,  as  the  Methodists 
are  by  the  brethren  in  England?  Samuel  Davis, 
President  of  Princeton,  was  the  friend  and  correspond- 
ent of  Wesley,  and  when  he,  with  Gilbert  Tennent, 
visited  England  to  secure  funds  for  Princeton,  he 
took  counsel,  and  received  encouragement  and  aid,' 
from  Wesley. 

"  Dartmouth  College  received  its  title  and  a  por- 
tion of  its  endowment  from  that  distinguished  mem- 
ber of  the  British  Nobility  and  associate  of  Lady 
Huntingdon,  and  patron  of  Whitefield,  and  that 
Methodist,  Lord  Dartmouth.  When  his  parish 
church  at  Chittenham  had  been  closed  against 
Whitefield  by  the  rector,  this  Nobleman,  with  his 
family,  stood  in  the  crowded  churchyard  and  lis- 
tened while  Whitefield  preached  from  a  tombstone. 


244  CENTENNIAL  OF 

and  afterwards  entertained  the  preacher  and  his 
associates  at  his  mansion,  where  the  same  evening 
Whitefiekl  administered  the  Sacrament,  and  Talbot 
exhorted,  and  Venn  closed  the  day  with  prayer  and 
thanks<Tivinof.  It  was  of  Dartmouth  that  the  Meth- 
odist  poet,  Cowper,  wrote  as  — 

"  '  One  who  wears  a  coronet  and  prays.' 

"  It  was  to  this  same  Lord  Dartmouth,  member  of 
Lord  North's  cabinet,  and  Secretary  for  the  Colonies, 
that  Wesley  addressed  his  remonstrance  and  plea  for 
the  American  Colonists,  calling  them  an  oppressed 
people,  asking  for  nothing  more  than  their  rights. 

"Doctrinally,  there  was  Methodism  before  the 
Methodists. 

"  If  there  be  one  doctrine  which  has  been  held  and 
preached  by  Methodists  with  more  persistence  than 
another,  it  is  that  of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit ;  viz., 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  does  make  himself  known  to 
the  human  spirit,  and  does  testify  to  the  personal 
relationship  of  the  soul  to  God.  This  is  to  the  indi- 
vidual the  final  assurance  of  regeneration,  without 
which  there  always  lingers  a  doubt  of  personal  accept- 
ance with  God,  which  all  obedience  and  faith  cannot 
quite  remove.  The  calm,  following  the  struggle  at 
the  mourner's  bench ;  the  joyful  shout,  following  the 
tears  and  agony ;  sprang  from  the  assurance  of  the 
witnessing  Spirit.  This  has  been  regarded  as  pecu- 
liarly Methodistic,  and  was  originally  exclusively  so, 
and  was  by  opponents  denounced  as  fanatical,  to  be 
frowned  upon  and  restrained.     But  the  latest  biog- 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  245 

rapher  of  Jonathan  Edwards  declares  that  '  the 
impulse  of  the  Great  Awakening  was  a  theological 
conviction,  which  first  took  shape  in  Edwards's  mind, 
—  a  belief  in  the  immediate  action  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  uj)on  the  human  soul.'  God  was  seen  to  hold 
as  direct  and  immediate  a  relationship  to  the  soul, 
as  he  held  to  the  external  world.     (Allen,  p.  134.) 

"  This  is  said  with  reference  to  Edwards's  earlier 
declaration  of  '  the  Divine  immanence,  as  constitut- 
ing the  realit}'  of  the  outward  world,'  and  to  his 
earlier  philosophic  dictum,  that  space  is  necessary, 
eternal,  infinite,  and  omnipresent,  and  space  is  God 
(p.  44).  The  same  writer  says  of  Edwards's  own 
conversion,  that  'at  this  time  neither  the  name 
(term)  nor  the  process  for  which  it  stood  were  as 
familiar  as  they  have  since  become.'  Edwards  is 
uncertain  about  his  own  spiritual  condition,  because 
he  is  uncertain  what  conversion  requires  or  includes. 

"But,  in  the  Great  Awakening,  this  principle  of 
direct  and  personal  action  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon 
the  soul,  cognized  by  the  soul,  became  the  foundation 
of  Edwards's  doctrine  of  conversion.  However  this 
doctrine  may  have  been  latent  in  the  teachings  of 
Calvin,  as  the  biograjiher  of  Edwards  claims,  he 
agrees  that  it  had  not  been  operative  in  the  theology 
of  the  Reformed  Churches.  Englisli  and  Scotch  Cal- 
vinism received  it  from  New  England,  where  first  was 
required  a  statement  of  experience,  wrought  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  within  the  soul,  as  a  condition  of  admis- 
sion to  church  membership.  Nay,  the  same  author 
suggests,  erroneously,  that  Wesley  caught,  from  the 


246  CENTENNIAL  OP 

reports  of  the  Great  Awakening,  his  first  idea  of  the 
possibility  of  such  a  work  in  Enghmd,  and  notes  that 
three  months  after  his  reading  of  these  reports  oc- 
curred the  first  instances  of  '  bodily  effects '  under 
his  preaching. 

"  The  significance  of  this  requirement  of  personal 
witness  of  the  Spirit  is  the  plainer  when  we  remem- 
ber that,  heretofore,  New  England  had  not  required 
that  her  ministry  should  be  converted  men,  and  that, 
later,  Edwards  was  driven  from  his  parish  because  he 
rejected  the  '  Half-way  Covenant,'  and  required  pro- 
fession of  faith  in  Christ  as  a  condition  of  admission 
to  the  Lord's  Supper. 

"Even  tiie  doctrine  of  Christian  perfection,  or  per- 
fect love,  which  perhaps  more  than  any  other  teach- 
ing of  Wesley  has  occasioned  great  reasoning  among 
his  followers,  and  great  opposition  from  without, 
even  this  doctrine  finds  its  examples  in  the  Great 
Awakening,  and  its  defence  in  the  writings  of 
Edwards. 

"Of  all  the  experiences  recorded  by  Edwards,  and 
used  in  proof  of  the  divine  power  manifest  in  this 
work,  none  is  more  marked  than  that  of  Mrs.  Ed- 
;  wards.  Mr.  Edwards  had  not  heard,  nor  had  Mr. 
Wesley  then  proclaimed,  the  theory  of  a  second 
divine  work,  following  in  Christian  life  upon  an  act 
of  personal  consecration,  and  an  exercise  of  faith, 
for  the  cleansing  of  the  heart  from  all  sin,  and  the 
filling  it  with  the  fulness  of  love  and  peace.  The 
doctrine,  Methodistically  stated,  would  not  have 
fitted  into  the  scheme  of  Edwards,  and  would  have 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  247 

been  rejected  by  hira  as  little  less  than  blasphemous. 
Yet  he  describes,  in  the  most  particular  manner,  an 
experience  of  his  wife,  which  would  have  been 
received  in  any  of  Mr.  Wesley's  societies,  or  among 
the  adherents  of  Lady  Huntingdon,  as  a  clear  case 
of  sanctification.  Nay,  it  can  hardly  be  surpassed, 
for  clear  and  full  detail,  by  any  instance  among  the 
saintly  experiences  recorded  by  Wesley.  Mrs.  Ed- 
wards, it  must  be  remembered,  was  of  excellent 
family.  A  woman  of  remarkable  beauty  and  grace 
of  person  and  manner,  of  rare  womanly  and  intel- 
lectual power,  thoroughly  educated  and  trained  in 
the  best  society  in  New  Haven,  of  devout  spirit  and 
fully  in  sympathy  with  the  work  of  her  husband,  for 
whom  she  had  the  most  exalted  admiration. 

"  It  was  during  the  second  Great  Awakening  at 
Northampton,  or,  rather,  when  its  force  was  partly 
spent,  and  when  there  began  to  be  symptoms  of 
reaction  and  opposition,  that  she  saj^s,  in  a  narrative 
written  at  the  request  of  her  husband,  and  published 
by  him,  that  she  was  led  to  make  a  new  and  more 
thorough  self-examination  and  self-consecration.  She 
had  before  given  up  all  to  God,  except  on  two  points ; 
viz.,  her  good  name,  and  the  esteem  and  love  of  her 
husband.  In  this  new  and  complete  consecration 
she  found  peace  in  the  text,  'Who  shall  lay  anything 
to  the  charge  of  God's  elect?'  And  she  declares, 
'  My  safety  and  happiness  and  eternal  enjoyment  of 
God's  immutable  love  seemed  as  unchangeable  as 
God  himself. 

" '  Melted  and  overcome  by  the  sweetness  of  this 


248  CENTENNIAL  OF 

assurance,  I  fell  into  a  great  flow  of  tears,  and  could 
not  forbear  weeping  aloud.  The  presence  of  God 
seemed  so  near  and  so  real,  that  I  seemed  scarcely 
conscious  of  anything  else.'  She  sought  to  test  the 
sincerity  and  completeness  of  her  consecration,  by 
the  questions  whether  she  would  be  willing  to  endure 
her  husband's  censure  and  displeasure  ;  whether  she 
would  be  willing  to  have  another  minister  surpass 
her  husband  in  usefulness  and  honor,  as  God's  instru- 
ment, even  in  his  own  parish,  or  to  suffer  the  loss 
of  the  esteem  of  their  people  and  be  driven  forth 
from  the  parish,  if  it  were  the  will  of  God ;  even 
whether  she  could  submit  to  liell  torments  for  a 
thousand  years.  By  all  these  tests  she  found  her- 
self absolutely  surrendered  to  the  will  of  God.  Lis- 
tening to  the  preaching  of  the  word  slie  is  filled  with 
joy.  Again  and  again,  in  meeting  and  at  liome,  in 
company  and  alone,  in  private  devotion  and  in  social 
religious  conversation,  her  bodily  strength  gives  way 
under  the  stress  of  spiritual  ecstasy.  At  different 
times  she  sinks  helpless  to  the  floor,  she  leaps  invol- 
untarily to  her  feet,  she  lies  faint  with  joy,  over- 
whelmed with  a  sense  of  God's  love.  Mr.  Edwards 
testifies  to  her  bodily  and  mental  health  during  all 
these  experiences,  to  her  carefulness  in  all  domestic 
and  social  duties,  and  he  calls  her  experience,  '  the 
riches  of  full  assurance.'  He  says  that  he  saw  many 
instances  in  Northampton  and  elsewhere  of  the  same 
kind,  though  none  so  high  in  degree. 

"It  ought  to  be  noted,  as  perhaps  an  incident  of 
her   theological    training,  that    Mrs.  Edwards,  not- 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  249 

withstanding  her  high  experience,  did  not  regard 
herself  as  free  from  sin,  but  was  led  by  her  clearer 
sight  of  the  divine  holiness  to  perceive  more  fully 
the  sinfulness  of  her  own  heart ;  and  this  notwith- 
standing that,  so  closely  did  she  come  to  tlie  divine, 
God  the  Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  seemed  as 
distinct  persons,  both  manifesting  their  inconceivable 
loveliness  and  mildness  and  gentleness,  and  their 
great  and  immutable  love  for  her.  There  is  nothing 
more  striking  than  this  in  the  seraphic  rapture  of 
Fletcher,  or  the  ecstasy  of  Hester  Ann  Rogers. 

"  Others,  not  of  our  communion,  have  claimed  for 
Methodism  a  broader  comprehension  than  we  have 
here  indicated.  A  distinguished  minister  and  writer 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  a  few  years  ago  wrote ;  — 

"  '  It  is  common  to  think  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church  as  the  Methodist  Church  of  the  country. 
It  really  represents  only  the  Wesleyan  type.  The 
Calvinistic  type  is  still  dominant  in  the  Presbyterian, 
Congregational,  and  Reformed  Churches.  Method- 
ism is;,  indeed,  the  dominant  factor  in  American 
Christianity  at  the  present  time.'  This  he  calls  '  an 
earlier  type  of  Methodism  in  America,  which  gained 
even  greater  triumphs  for  Christ  and  his  Church  a 
half-century  before  the  Wesleyan  type  made  any 
impression  on  the  country.'  The  same  writer  calls 
Edwards  '  the  theologian  of  Methodism.' 

"Of  course  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  this  view 
is  taken  from  the  Calvinistic  side  of  Methodism, — 
the  side  which  tlie  American  disciples  of  ]\Ir.  Wesley 
have  scarcely  recognized.     But_when  we  remember 


250  CENTENNIAL  OF 

the  efforts  of  "Wesley  to  accommodate  the  differences 
with  Whitefield,  and  to  avoid  the  division  among 
Methodists  on  the  questions  of  election  and  perse- 
verance, and  so  to  avoid  the  bitter  war  of  words 
which  followed,  between  the  two  factions,  we  may 
well  question  which  would  have  been  better  for  the 
world,  union  or  separation.  Possibly  only  a  neutral 
party  can  justly  measure  the  relative  benefits  to  the 
world  of  these  two  Methodisms,  —  the  stream  of 
Wesleyan  Methodism  a  great,  strong,  ever -increasing 
river,  flowing  between  well-defined  .banks  of  polity 
and  doctrines,  with  here  and  tliere  a  schismatic 
bayou,  bursting  through  to  find  anotlier  outlet  to  the 
sea,  or  the  great  current  of  Calvinistic  Methodism, 
which,  never  becoming  a  distinct  river,  poured  its 
abundant  waters  into  other  and  older  channels, 
making  the  flood-tides  and  overflowing  banks  and 
healthful  streams  of  Presbyterian,  Congregational, 
and  Reformed  Churches,  and  which  makes  this 
broad  and  inclusive  Methodism  the  dominant  factor 
in  American  Christianity,  which  may  be  said,  in  this 
sense,  to  embrace  the  whole  of  Evangelical  Chris- 
tianity in  America." 

The  Chairman  said :  "  Dr.  Rogers,  Secretary  of 
the  Committee,  will  say  a  word  or  two.' 

Dr.  Rogers  said :  "  We  desired  to  have  some 
representative  women  to  speak  on  this  platform. 
Miss  Frances  E.  Willard  was  engaged  to  speak,  but 
at  a  late  hour,  just  as  the  Committee  separated  for 
the  summer  vacation,  word  was  received  from  her 
that  she  would  not  be  able  to  speak.     Afterward  the 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  251 

Committee  agreed  to  invite  Miss  Jane  M.  Bancroft, 
recently  elected  to  a  Professorship  in  the  Ohio 
Weslejan  University,  to  fill  the  place,  but  the  letter 
was  not  received  by  Miss  Bancroft  for  some  time. 
But  at  last,  at  a  late  day,  she  replied  that  she  had 
not  received  the  letter,  and  suggested  that  we  have 
brief  letters  of  five  minutes  from  different  women 
instead  of  speeches.  This  suggestion  was  adopted. 
I  will  call  on  Dr.  Crawford  to  read  the  letter  from 
Mrs.  Dr.  George  M.  Steele,  after  wliich  I  have  two 
or  three  brief  letters  to  read." 

Dr.  G.  A.  Crawford  read  the  letter  from  Mrs. 
Dr.  G.  M.  Steele  ;  Dr.  C.  S.  Rogers  read  letters  from 
Mrs.  Bishop  Newman  and  Miss  Jane  M.  Bancroft, 
after  which  Rev.  R.  W.  Allen  pronounced  the  Bene- 
diction. 


/T=n  ''^^<«^^^(il^ 


CHAPTER  VI. 
Thursday  Afternoon. 

Ep WORTH  League  session,  Rev.  W.  I.  Haven  in 
the  chair. 

The  Chairman  said :  "  Let  us  unite  in  singing  the 
third  hymn  : 

'  Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds.'  " 

The  Chairman  said  :  "  We  will  be  led  in  prayer  b}^ 
the  Rev.  Dr.  N.  T.  Whitaker,  of  Chestnut  Street 
Church,  Portland,  Me." 

After  prayer,  the  Chairman  said :  "  Arminian  Meth- 
odism really  began  when  the  mother  of  the  founder 
of  our  Church  was  converted  from  Calvinism  through 
the  power  of  both  human  affection  and  divine  convic- 
tion. In  her  household  she  trained  up  her  boys  and 
girls  in  the  knowledge  and  the  love  of  God,  and  in  the 
fear  of  His  righteousness.  And  out  of  that  household 
sprang  that  broad  and  generous  movement  of  which  we 
are  a  part.  And  into  the  life  of  that  movement,  within 
a  hundred  years,  has  come  the  consolidation  of  all  the 
different  young  people's  societies  existing  in  our 
Church,  forming  an  organization  which  bears  the 
beautiful  name  of  the  old  rectory  where  our  founder 
was  born. 

"  The  work  of  this  organization  is  six-fold  :  It  looks 
after  its  finances,  has  its  treasury,  and  a  committee 

C253J 


254  CENTENNIAL  OF 

for  that  purpose.  It  looks  after  its  correspondence, 
and  has  its  secretaries  and  officers  for  that  purpose. 
Its  prime  work  is  the  work  of  spiritual,  aggressive 
revivalism.  (Amen !)  I  know  of  no  Chapter  that 
does  not  hold  a  weekly  young  people's  prayer  meet- 
ing. There  may  be  a  few  such,  but  they  are  few. 
And  I  know  of  many  who  have  been  persuaded  to 
give  themselves  to  Jesus  by  the  influence  of  these 
young  people's  Epworth  League  prayer  meetings, 
who  have  thus  been  drawn  into  the  Church,  to  its 
altars  and  its  services.  First  of  all,  ahead  of  every- 
thing, conspicuous  above  everything  else,  is  this 
department  of  Christian  activity.  But  the  League 
also  stands  for  all  that  effort  for  which  Mr.  Wesley 
stood,  and  which  we  as  a  Church  have  heartily  main- 
tained. The  League  has  its  literary  department,  its 
department  of  mercy  and  help,  its  department  for 
Christian  entertainment  of  those  who  need  recreation 
as  well  as  intellectual  culture  and  llie  sympathy  of 
mutual  service.  In  all  this  land  this  movement  is 
endeavoring  to  carry  on  the  work  of  God  through 
our  common  Methodism. 

"  And  let  me  say  here  that  the  ideas  and  ideals  of 
this  League  were  not  taken  from  any  other  organiza- 
tion whatever,  but  sprang  up  out  of  our  own  life,  and 
have  been  developed  out  of  our  own  work.  The 
pledge  came  away  back,  years  ago,  from  a  camp  meet- 
ing out  in  Illinois,  where  the  Holy  Spirit  was  poured 
out  upon  some  young  people,  and  they  bound  them- 
selves together  to  carry  on  the  work  of  their  Master. 
And  the  different  movements  have  taken  shape  and 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  255 

united  together  from  a  sort  of  spontaneous  generation 
of  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  poured  out  upon  our 
young  men  and  women  and  their  helpers.  It  is  not 
a  young  man's  work.  It  is  not  a  young  woman's 
work.  It  is  preparing  the  Church  for  work  when, 
side  by  side,  brothers  and  sisters,  they  will  carry  on 
the  whole  work  of  the  Church  in  all  its  different 
departments. 

"  Last  night  I  was  kept  awake  to  a  late  hour  by  the 
S(^und  of  the  beating  of  drums,  and  the  music  from 
brass  instruments,  and  the  tramping  of  feet,  and  the 
flashing  lights  on  the  window-pane,  of  the  moving 
torches.  And  when  I  rose  to  see  what  was  going  on, 
and  noticed  that  those  Avho  were  playing  the  instru- 
ments were  striplings,  and  those  who  marched  in  the 
procession  were  nothing  but  boj's,  my  curiosity  was 
excited,  until  I  was  told  it  was  the  marching  of  the 
Sons  of  Veterans,  from  our  suburban  towns.  And  I 
said,  '  These  Epworth  Leagties  gather  together  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  veterans,  of  men  and  women 
who  have  supported  and  been  consecrated  for  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  whose  great  Captain  is 
on  high,  and  under  whose  banner  and  obedient  to 
whose  call  they  mean  to  go  forth  for  the  winning  of 
souls  unto  righteousness  and  the  joys  of  true  holiness.' 

"It  is  my  privilege  to  introduce  as  speaker,  this 
afternoon,  one  of  our  chief  shepherds,  who  has  led  us 
always  in  the  right  way,  and  whose  voice  we  will  all 
be  glad  to  hear  as  an  inspiration,  as  he  speaks  of  the 
'  Missionary  Enthusiasm  of  Methodism '  —  Bishop  W. 
F.  Mallalieu." 


256  CENTENNIAL  OP 

Bishop  ]\Iallalieu  said  :  "  Some  years  ago  I  was  in 
Epwoi'th,  in  England,  and  I  saw  the  buildings  of  the 
place  were  around  a  cross  roads.  And  I  noticed  that, 
at  the  intersection  of  the  roads,  was  an  old  stone 
cross,  which  they  told  me  was  eight  hundred  years 
old,  or  more.  And  futher,  they  said  that  John  Wes- 
ley, when,  from  time  to  time,  he  visited  his  old  home, 
would  stop  from  whatever  direction  he  came,  mount- 
ing the  pedestal  upon  which  this  stone  cross  stands, 
and  would  tarry  long  enough  to  preach  one  of  his 
gbsj)el  sermons,  and  then  hasten  on  his  journey.  To 
my  mind,  in  some  sense,  that  serves  as  an  illustration 
of  the  theme  for  our  consideration  at  the  present 
moment : 

'Methodism  as  a  Mission  Force.' 

"  The  past  of  Methodism  is  secure.  It  has  outlived 
the  period  of  youth  and  experiment.  It  has  risen 
above  prejudice  and  contempt.  It  has  overcome 
opposition  and  persecution.  It  occupies  to-day  a 
position  of  the  vastest  importance,  and  most  com- 
manding influence :  — 

"  'See  how  great  a  flame  aspires, 
Kiudled  by  a  spark  of  grace  ; 
Jesus'  love  tlie  nations  fires, 
Sets  the  kingdoms  on  a  blaze. 
*'  Moi'e  and  more  it  spreads  and  grows, 
Ever  mighty  to  prevail  ; . 
Sin's  strongholds  it  now  o'erthrows, 
Shakes  the  trembling  gates  of  Hell.' 

"  Methodism  is,  and  always  has  been,  a  mission 
force,  because  of  the  personality  of  its  founder. 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  257 

"  Every  great  movement  of  humanity  has  back  of  it 
a  personality. 

"  We  shall  best  understand  the  movement,  if  we 
study  the  personality. 

"The  greatest  religious  movement  of  modern  times 
is  represented  by  Methodism.  The  personality  of 
John  Wesley  is  stamped  upon  Methodism. 

"  Methodism  is  the  creation  of  Wesley.  '  He  em- 
bodied in  himself  not  this  or  that  side  of  the  vast 
movement,  but  the  very  movement  itself.'  *  For  more 
than  fifty  years  ;  or,  rather,  from  the  year  of  his  own 
entrance  upon  a  conscious  experience  of  pardon,  until 
his  death,  his  hand  guided,  his  counsels  controlled, 
and  his  will  directed  the  development  of  Methodism. 

" '  Few  things  in  ecclesiastical  history  are  more 
striking  than  the  energy  and  the  success  with  which  he 
propagated  his  opinions.  He  was  gifted  with  a 
frame  of  iron,  and  with  spirits  that  never  flagged.'  f 

"  He  was  intense  in  his  convictions,  was  fearless  to 
the  utmost  degree,  and  possessed  a  high  and  holy 
purpose  as  changeless  as  fate. 

"  The  best  and  truest  blood  of  England  was  in  his 
veins.  Its  type  was  illustrated  by  one  of  his  own 
kindred  in  the  fateful  field  of  Waterloo.  The  Duke 
of  Wellington,  in  not  a  few  respects,  was  like  John 
Wesley. 

"  The  mother  of  Wesley,  one  of  the  noblest  women 
that  ever  trod  this  earth,  transmitted  to  her  son  her 
own  exalted  spirituality,  thoroughly  mingled  with 
practical  Saxon  common  sense. 

♦  Greene.  t  Lecky. 


258  CENTENNIAL   OF 

"  Wesley  possessed,  to  an  extraordinary  degree, 
mastership  of  men,  and  the  capability  of  organiza- 
tion. He  knew  by  intuition  how  to  adapt  means  to 
ends.  He  liad  all  the  essential  qualities  of  superb 
leadership. 

"But  it  took  many  long,  weary  years  of  training 
to  fit  him  for  his  work.  Moses  needed  forty  years 
in  the  schools  of  Egypt,  and  forty  more  in  the  deserts 
of  Arabia,  before  he  was  prepared  to  lead  (lod's 
people  out  of  bondage,  and  build  them  up  into  a 
nation.  "* 

"  It  cost  Martin  Luther  a  score  or  more  of  years  of 
conflict,  study,  doubt,  and  arduous  toil  before  he  was 
ready  to  lead  humanity  out  of  the  thraldom  and 
darkness  of  Romish  superstitions. 

"■When  John  Wesley  was  thirty  years  old,  there 
were  only  few,  if  any,  of  his  age  in  England  who 
were  his  equals  in  scholarship,  and  he  continued 
to  be  a  student  as  long  as  he  lived. 

"  One  writer  says  of  him,  at  the  age  of  twenty -one  : 
••  He  is  a  sensible  and  acute  collegian,  baffling  every 
man  by  the  subtleties  of  his  logic,  and  laughing  at 
them  for  being  so  easily  routed ;  a  young  fellow  of 
the  finest  classical  taste,  of  the  most  liberal  and 
manly  sentiments.' 

"  But  while  thus  talented  and  accomplished,  he  was 
passing  through  the  severest  spiritual  trials.  God 
let  him  grope  in  darkness  for  many  years,  that  he 
might,  all  the  more  surely,  lead  the  blind.  God  let 
him  bear  heavy  burdens,  that  he  might  more  fully 
sympathize  with  despairing  souls  and  crushed 
humanity. 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  259 

"The  Pentecostal  Church  received  the  command  to 
go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel,  before 
they  received  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
the  enduement  of  power.  So  in  the  soul  of  John 
Wesley  was  begotten  the  mission  spirit,  long  be- 
fore he  found  the  joy  of  salvation,  through  simple 
faith. 

"  It  was  this  inward  monition  that  sent  him,  while 
yet  he  lingered  amid  the  delights  of  glorious  Oxford, 
out  among  the  poor  and  neglected ;  it  was  this  which 
sent  him  to  the  almshouses  and  the  prisons  to  help 
the  poorest,  and  cheer,  and  instruct,  and  save  the 
vilest.  It  was  this  which  sent  him  out  to  the  wilds 
of  the  new  settlements  in  Georgia,  to  labor  for  the 
salvation  of  hard-hearted  and  godless  men  and 
women. 

"When,  therefore,  the  j)ower  of  God's  saving  grace 
reached  his  heart,  it  is  no  wonder  that  he  cried  out, 
*  The  world  is  my  parish.'  It  is  no  wonder  that  he 
planned  '  to  spread  scriptural  holiness  over  all 
lands.' 

"  Hence  I  say  that  the  personality  of  John  Wes- 
ley, which  was  the  personality  of  blood,  of  he- 
redity, of  scholarship,  of  experience,  of  deathless 
purpose  to  win  this  world  for  Christ,  this  per- 
sonality impressing  itself  upon  Methodism  has  made 
it  a  mighty  mission  force,  and  further,  every 
real,  and  genuine  spiritual  son  of  Wesley  bears 
the  stamp  of  his  personality;  and  so  this  force 
has  multiplied  and  intensified  as  the  years  have 
rolled   alonsf. 


260  CENTENNIAL  OF 

"  '  lie  has  sounded  forth  the  trumpet  that  shall  never 
call  retreat ; 
He  is  sifting  out  the  hearts  of  men  before 

his  judgment  seat; 
O,  be  swift,  my  soul,  to  answer  him  ;  be  jubilant 
my  feet; 
Our  God  is  marching  on.' 

"  Methodism  is  a  mission  force  because  of  its  purpose. 
It  most  profoundly  believes  that  this  world,  in  due 
time,  is  to  be  brought  into  subjection  to  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Every  real  Methodist  feels  this  in  his 
soul. 

"  Methodism  believes  that  the  conflict  of  the  ages 
will  never  cease  till  He  whose  right  it  is  shall  reign ; 
till  His  dominion  shall  extend  over  all  the  earth, 
breaking  in  pieces  and  consuming  all  opposing  forces. 

"  The  trumpet-bearing  angel  of  the  King  of  kings 
has  never  yet  been  created,  that  shall  sound  a  retreat 
to  call  off  the  militant  host  of  God  from  the  embat- 
tled fields  of  earth.  And  so  Methodism  aligns  itself 
with  all  holy  angels,  and  with  the  triune  God  for 
the  conquest  and  salvation  of  this  redeemed  world. 
And  this  purpose  makes  Methodism  a  dauntless 
mission  force. 

"  Again,  the  doctrines  of  Methodism  logically  in- 
volve the  ideas  of  expansion,  of  universality,  of 
adaptation,  and  of  ultimate  acceptance  by  all  right- 
thinking  men. 

"  Methodism  teaches  for  doctrine,  the  universality 
of  the  redemptive  work  of  Christ,  and  so  the  uncon- 
ditional salvation  of  all  who  have  not  wilfully 
transgressed  the  law  of  God. 


ISTEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  26l 

"  It  teaches  that  every  man  has  a  fair  chance  in  this 
life.  '  For  the  invisible  things  of  Him  from  the 
creation  of  the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being  under- 
stood by  the  things  that  are  made,  even  His  eternal 
power  and  Godhead,  so  that  they  [the  heathen]  are 
without  excuse.' 

'•  Calvinism  can  have  no  post-mortem,  or  any  other 
probation,  in  this  world,  nor  in  any  other.  Metho- 
dism needs  no  post-mortem  probation,  since  the 
awards  of  judgment  are  based  on  righteousness  and 
not  on  caprice. 

"Methodism  stands  in  the  presence  of  fallen  and 
lost  humanity,  and  shouts,  and  sings  with  tones  of  a 
boundless  love  and  triumphant  faith. 

"  '  Ye  who  have  sold  for  naught, 
Your  heritage  above, 
Shall  have  it  back  unbought, 

The  gift  of  Jesus'  love; 
The  year  of  jubilee  is  come, 
Return,  ye  ransomed  sinnei'S,  home.' 
" '  O,  for  a  trumpet  voice. 
On  all  the  world  to  call, 
To  bid  their  hearts  rejoice 

On  Him  who  died  for  all  ; 
For  all  my  Lord  was  crucified  ; 
For  all,  for  all,  my  Saviour  died.' 

"  With  a  complete  atonement,  so  complete  that  no 
soul  of  man  has  ever  been,  or  ever  will  be,  left  out, 
with  an  all-including  invitation,  it  follows  logically 
that  every  soul  that  comes  to  God  in  penitence  and 
faith,  will  find  pardon,  peace,  comfort,  joy,  the 
witness  of  the  Spirit  to  the  fact  of  his  adoption  ;  and, 
if    the   light  be    followed,    and   duty    done ;    and   if 


262  CENTENNIAL   OP 

consecration  be  renewed,  and  all-inclusive  ;  and  if  faith 
be  steadfast,  then  the  soul  will  come  to  know  the 
uttermost  salvation,  the  deliverance  from  the  guilt, 
the  power,  and  the  pollution  of  sin  ;  will  come, 
indeed,  to  know  that  perfect  love  which  is  the 
fulfilment  of  the  two  greatest  commandments,  and 
the  antepast  of  heaven. 

"  The  common  sense  of  humanity  knows  that  a 
heaven  and  a  hell  are  necessities  of  the  moral  govern- 
ment of  a  just  and  holy  God. 

"  And  then  follows  the  question  ;  How  ma}'  we  make 
the  most  of  life  ?  How  escape  the  doom  of  the 
impenitent  and  incorrigible  ?  How  gain  the 
blissful  liome  of  the  pure  and  the  holy  ? 

"  Methodism,  standing  on  the  plane  of  humanit}', 
opens  the  door  of  hope,  by  the  authority  of  God's 
word,  to  every  soul  of  man  ;  offers  to  him  a  consist- 
ent and  rational  theology  that  can  be  worked  out 
experimentally,  with  the  results  already  indicated. 
No  wonder  that  a  very  hungry'  world  listens  with 
gladness,  and  accepts  such  an  evangel.  No  wonder 
that  Methodism  is  a  mission  force. 

"  Finally,  the  outcome  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  3'ears 
shows  that  Methodism  is  a  mission  force.  The 
Methodist  members  on  eai'th  nnmber  over  six  mil' 
lions  ;  all  told,  members  and  constituent  members, 
more  than  thirty  millions. 

"•The  victoiious  banners  of  Methodism  float  in  all 
zones,  and  in  all  longitudes.  l-.ed  on  by  men  of 
mighty  faith  and  impetuous  zeal,  the  Methodist 
preachei-s  have  gone  forth  to  win  immortal  triumphs 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  263 

in  all  lands.  The}'  have  gone  to  toil  with  equal 
loyalty  and  devotion  beneath  the  burning  sun  of  the 
tropics,  and  the  chilling  frosts  of  the  icy  north.  And 
ever  from  their  lips,  as  they  onward  press,  we  hear 
the  cry,  ^  plus  ulti-a,'  —  more  beyond, —  and  on  they 
go  to  conquer  the  whole  world  for  Jesus. 

"  Surely  the  record  of  what  has  been  dared  and  done 
in  the  first  centurj^  and  a  half  of  Methodism,  proves 
it  to  be  a  magnificent,  God-inspired  mission  force. 

"  The  glorious  past  ought  to  make  every  Methodist 
of  to-day  an  enthusiast  for  his  cause,  his  Churcli, 
his  Christ.  If  each  one  of  us  can  come  to  feel  the 
touch  of  thirty  millions,  if  each  one  of  us  can  in- 
carnate in  himself  the  swing  of  conquest,  and  the 
inspiration  of  victory,  then,  indeed,  shall  the  future 
be  grander  .than  the  past,  and  God's  recording  angels 
shall  be  kept  busy  with  writing  down  the  new  and 
multiplied  achievements  that  shall  usher  in  the  glory 
of  the  millennial  morning. 

"  On  earth,  or  in  heaven,  may  we  all  be  ready  to 
celebrate,  with  all  the  angelic  hosts,  the  ultimate 
coronation  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

The  Chairman  said :  "  When  Jesse  Lee  preached 
upon  Boston  Common  he  knelt  upon  a  table,  gave 
out  his  text,  sang  a  hymn,  and  there  is  no  doubt, 
though  it  is  not  recorded,  that  he  '  took  a  collection.' 
It  has  been  deemed  wise  by  those  who  have  managed 
this  enterprise  to  have  no  collections  taken  here  at 
all,  and  the  expenses  are  all  borne  by  private  offer- 
ino-s.  But  it  is  deemed  proper  that  these  exercises 
should  not  close  without  our  having  an  opportunity 


264  CENTENNIAL   OF 

to  put  our  hands  in  our  pockets  and  give  something 
to  help  keep  the  name  of  Jesse  Lee  as  fair  in  the  far 
north-west  of  our  countr}'-  as  when  Jesse  Lee  came 
here  in  the  north-east.  Brother  Taylor  will  say  a 
word,  and  we  will  take  an  offering." 

Rev.  Bro.  E.  M.  Taylor  said  :  "  You  have  made 
the  very  speech  that  I  would  have  made.  It  has 
seemed  that  we  have  had  such  a  hallelujah  time  in 
our  history,  bringing  out  the  results  of  our  founder's 
work,  that  we  ought  to  be  ashamed  to  go  away  sim- 
ply enjoying  for  ourselves  ;  and  if  that  old  hero  could 
join  us,  he  would  say, '  Put  your  hands  in  your  pockets 
and  carry  on,  in  another  part  of  the  world,  something 
that  bears  my  name.' 

"There  is,  in  Alaska,  a  Home  bearing  the  name  of 
Jesse  Lee,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  to  those  people,  as  it  Avas  done  here  a 
hundred  years  ago.  And  would  it  not  be  a  good 
thing  for  this  meeting  to  take  a  collection,  and 
give  it  in  that  direction?  Two  things  are  wanted 
there,  the  room  to  be  furnished  for  the  purpose 
of  '  bringing  scholars  together  in  a  mission  school, 
and  the  furnishings.  A  teacher  is  waiting  to  go,  if 
the  funds  can  be  raised.  She  has  entered  her  name 
on  that  list.  The  speecli  I  have  to  make  is  this  —  an 
appeal  in  the  name  of  the  memory  of  that  old  hero 
whom  we  celebrate  to-day,  and  in  the  hope  that  this 
specified  work  may  be  carried  on."  (Brethren  were 
appointed  to  take  the  collection,  and  about  forty  dol- 
lars were  received). 

The  Chairman  said :  —  "  Sometime  we  may  have  the 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  265 

opportunity  to  attend  a  Methodist  celebration  in 
Alaska,  if  you  will  only  get  it  well  started.  Let  us 
rise  and  sing  number  eleven : 

'  Jesus  shall  reign  where  e'er  the  sun.'  " 

The  Chairman  said  :  — "  There  is  one  story  ot  Jesse 
Lee  that  I  have  not  heard  told  in  this  Convention. 
It  seems  to  me  it  is  proper  for  it  to  be  mentioned 
now.  It  is  said  that  when  he  was  coming  up  here 
into  New  England  he  brought  a  Virginia  preacher 
along  with  him,  in  order  that  the  people  might  see 
what  eloquent  workmen  they  had  in  that  section  of 
the  country.  And  on  the  way  he  told  this  Virgin- 
ian preacher  that  the  Ncav  Englanders  were  very 
scrupulous  to  have  all  the  food  that  they  provided 
eaten  up ;  it  Avas  a  sort  of  rule  in  a  New  England 
house  that  whatever  was  put  on  the  plate  must  be 
eaten.  And  then  he  also  told  the  people  where  he 
stopped,  that  this  gentleman  from  Virginia  was  a 
very  modest  man,  and  a  very  big  eater,  and  that  he 
would  always  say,  'I  do  not  want  any  more,'  but 
that  he  should  be  supplied  without  any  further 
remark.  So  when  the  meal  time  came,  and  they 
were  sitting,  the  host  at  the  head,  Mr.  Lee  upon  one 
side,  and  the  Virginia  gentleman  on  the  other,  the 
host  helped  the  gentleman  very  bountifully,  and 
before  he  finished,  suggested  that  he  should  have 
something  more.  He  paid  no  attention  to  his  declin- 
ing, but  filled  up  his  plate  a  second  time.  When  he 
got  through  the  second  plate,  the  host  tried  it  again, 
and,   in   spite   of  the   protestations,   the    plate    was 


266  CENTENNIAL  OF 

bountifully  filled  the  third  time.  And  before  he  got 
to  the  end  of  that  third  plate,  he  said,  '  Courtesy 
or  no  courtesy,  I  can't  eat  any  more.'  And  lie 
went  back  thoroughly  satisfied  that  New  England 
was  not  proverbially  niggardly. 

"Our  programme  shows  that  we  are  liberal  pro- 
viders. And  noAv  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introduc- 
ing Dr.  S.  F.  Upham.  He  is  to  speak  of  the 
'  Heroic  Element  in  Early  Metliodism.'  I  might 
almost  say  it  is  to  be  an  address  on  the  heroes  by  one 
of  them,  for  he  has  gone  out  from  us,  from  the  pleas- 
ant pastorates  of  Boston,  Lynn,  and  Springfield,  to 
labor  in  the  wilds  of  New  Jersey,  and  bring  to  Christ 
some  of  the  theologues  there." 

The  Heroic  Element  in  Early  Methodism. 

"  We  all  believe  in  heroes.  Even  Carljde,  churlish 
and  arrogant,  said  that  he  believed  in  lieroes,  and 
wrote  in  his  clumsy  way  concerning  liero-worship. 
The  truth  is,  we  are  so  made  that  deeds  of  genuine  self- 
forgetfulness  commend  themselves  to  instant  admira- 
tion. '  By  an  instinct  sure  and  swift,'  saj-s  a  great 
writer,  'we  know  when  a  human  soul  rises  to  the 
grandeur  of  a  rare  occasion.'  Nor  are  we  quicker  to 
see  than  to  acknowledge  this  sublimity.  Praise  is  as 
spontaneous  as  it  is  generous.  Paul  is  at  JVIiletus. 
He  is  no  longer  young.  He  is  Paul  the  aged.  Send- 
ing for  the  Ephesian  elders,  lie  addi-esses  them.  He 
has  had  a  sad  presentiment  and  expresses  it.  He  is 
confident  that  bonds  and  imprisonment  await  him,  but 
he  declares,  'none  of  these  things  tnove  me,  neither 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  267 

count  I  my  life  dear  unto  myself,  so  that  I  may  fin- 
ish my  course  with  joy,  and  the  ministry  which  I  have 
received  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  testify  the  gospel  of 
the  grace  of  God.' 

"  Now  it  is  immaterial  whether  you  consider  Paul  as 
a  fanatic,  or  as  speaking  the  words  of  truth  and  sober- 
ness; no  one  can  stand  in  the  midst  of  that  weeping 
assembly,  and  look  upon  the  face  of  that  man,  and 
listen  to  his  resolute  words,  without  a  generous  glow 
of  admiration. 

"  On  Bunker  Hill,  now  within  the  corporate 
limits  of  this  old  city,  stands  a  tall  granite  sliaft. 
What  is  its  meaning?  It  stands  there  to  com- 
memorate the  deed  of  the  '  embattled  farmers,'  who, 
with  pick-axe  and  spade,  and  within  hearing  of 
the  '  All's  well '  of  the  Britisli  soldiers  on  Copp's 
Hill,  were  on  the  morrow  to  strike  a  blow  for 
human  liberty,  which  should  be  felt  tln-oughout 
the  world  and  to  the  end  of  time.  No  American 
can  visit  that  spot  without  emotion,  for  that  sultry 
June  day  witnessed  deeds  of  lieroism  as  grand  as 
this    world   has    ever    seen. 

"  So,  too,  those  books  that  recite  the  achievement 
of  heroism  are  the  favorites  of  our  leisure  hours. 

"  '  The  hero  or  lieroine,'  says  Professor  Lipscomb 
of  Vanderbilt  University,  'is  the  illuminated 
centre  whence  the  lustre  streams  over  the  page.' 
This  charm  draws  the  student  to  Plutarch,  enlists 
his  intensest  sympathy  with  Joan  of  Arc,  and  stirs 
a  Christian  with  emotions  over  'Fox's  Book  of 
Martyrs.' 


268  CENTENNIAL  OI* 

"  Who  can  read  the  story  of  that  most  illustrious 
American,  General  Grant,  without  admiration  ?  It 
is  autohiographical,  and  this  is  well, 

"  Emerson  says,  '  Every  man's  biography  is  at  his 
own  expense.  He  furnishes  not  only  the  facts,  but 
the  report.  I  mean  that  all  biography  is  autobiog- 
raphy. It  is  only  what  he  tells  of  himself  that  has 
come  tfo  be  known  and  believed.' 

"  Grant  was  great  when  he  led  the  armies  of  the 
Republic  and  crushed  an  infernal  rebellion.  He  was 
great  when  he  stood  at  Appomattox  and  received, 
with  quiet  dignity,  the  sword  of  the  chief  Confederate 
general.  He  was  great,  when,  during  the  years  of 
the  darkness  and  confusion  of  reconstruction,  he 
brought  out  the  nation  into  a  large  and  wealthy 
place  ;  but  he  was  greatest,  when,  having  received 
more  honors,  in  the  old  world  and  in  the  new,  than 
ever  came  to  an}^  other  military  captain  in  the 
world's  history ;  when,  having  lost  all  his  prop- 
erty through  the  rascality  of  others,  and  when, 
feeling  the  cold  hands  of  death  clutching  at  his 
throat,  he  sat  down  to  write  the  story  of  his 
life,  that  those  whom  he  loved  might  not  be  left 
in   poverty. 

"  That  life,  embodying  all  that  was  noble  in  patriot- 
ism and  lovely  in  virtue,  evincing  an  utter  absorp- 
tion of  all  interests  in  the  holy  one  of  his  countrj', 
is,  and  will  forever  be,  an  inspiration  to  heroic 
endeavor. 

"To-day  we  have  to  do  with  another  class  of  heroes, 
but  none  the  less  real  or  great. 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  269 

"  'Not  from  the  battle  fields, 

Borne  on  their  battered  shields, 

By  foes  o'ercome; 
But  from  a  sterner  fight 
In  the  defence  of  right, 
Clothed  in  the  conquer' s  might 
We  hail  them,  true.' 

"  There  never  were  grander  heroes  than  the  early 
Methodists.  And  there  are  no  deeds  recorded  on- 
the  pages  of  human  history  more  chivalrous  or 
valiant  than  theirs.  Indeed,  Methodism  is  a  record 
of  moral  heroism,  unsurpassed  in  any  age  of  the 
Church.  Their  heroism  showed  itself  in  several 
ways. 

"  1.  In  their  self-denial.  Tliis  element  certainly 
enters  into  all  genuine  heroism.  There  is  an  abandon- 
ment of  care,  pleasure,  everything,  to  a  higher  purpose. 

"•  Milton  expressed  the  thought  when  he  said, 
'  Whoever  would  write  a  great  poem,  must  make  his 
life   a    poem.'      And   he   lived  up   to    his    standard. 

"  Agassiz  refused  to  accept  a  large  sum  of  money, 
for  a  course  of  lectures,  saying  that  he  could  not 
leave  his  work  to  make  money. 

"  In  this  sentiment,  the  great  scientist  did  not  affect 
to  despise  money.  None  knew  its  use  or  appreciated 
its  advantages  more  than  he,  but  he  felt  tliat  he 
must  forego  the  pleasures  of  the  acquisition  and 
possession  of  wealth,  that  he  might  devote  himself 
to  one  purpose  in  life. 

"  Now  the  early  Methodists  gave  up  the  world. 
They  gave  a  most  emphatic  and  affirmative  answer 
to  the   question,  — '  Dost  thou   renounce   the   devil 


270  CENTENNIAL  OP 

;uid  all  liis  works,  the  vain  pomp  and  glory  of  the 
world,  with  all  covetous  desires  of  the  same,  with  all 
the  carnal  desires  of  the  flesh,  so  that  thou  wilt 
not  foUow  or  he  led  by  them  ? ' 

"  They  did,  indeed,  '  renounce  the  world.'  Thej 
became  singular  in  the  world ;  yet  they  lived  above 
it.     They  gave  up  all ;  yet  they  gained  all. 

"  Let  me  be  understood.  Those  early  Methodists 
were  not  monks,  nor  monkish.  There  was  nothing 
mediaeval  about  them.  A  favorite  hymn  with  them 
was  this :  — 

"  '  Not  in  the  tombs  we  pine  to  dwell, 
Not  in  the  dark  monastic  cell, 

By  bars  and  grates  confined. 
Freely  to  all  ourselves  we  give, 
Constrained  by  Jesus  love  to  live 

The  servants  of  mankind,' 

"  There  is  an  impression  among  some  that  those 
old  Methodists  were  ascetics.  They  did  not  visit 
the  theatre,  indeed  they  did  not,  and  tliey  were 
not  always  whining  around  because  tliey  could  not 
go.  This  is  true  —  but  they  were  happy — for  they 
'enjoyed  religion.'  I  have  heard  it  said  that  they 
were  Puritans.  Far  be  it  from  me,  in  this  presence, 
and  in  this  New  England  metropolis,  to  say  a  word 
which  by  any  possibility  can  be  construed  as  a 
reflection  upon  the  purity  of  motive,  the  nobility  of 
character  which  belonged  to  those  noble  men,  known 
in  English  and  American  history  as  Puritans. 

"  They  believed  in  the  free  state,  the  free  school,  and 
the  free  church.     Here  on  these  bleak  and  inhospit- 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  271 

able<shores,  they  set  up  the  standard  of  Christianity, 
they  opened  the  broad  pathway  of  knoAvledge,  and 
this  wilderness  and  solitary  place  was  glad  for 
them. 

"  Still  it  must  be  said,  their  type  of  piety  was  not 
attractive.  They  lived  chiefly  in  the  shadow  of 
Sinai,  amid  its  thunders  and  awful  voices.  They 
had  come  '  unto  the  mount  that  might  be  touched, 
and  that  burned  with  fire,'  and,  as  in  the  olden  time, 
so  terrible  was  the  sight,  that  they  did  '  exceedingly 
fear  and  quake.' 

"  But  those  early  Methodists  had  '  come  unto 
mount  Zion,  and  unto  the  city  of  the  living  God, 
the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  to  an  innumerable  com- 
pany of  angels,  to  the  general  assembly  and  church 
of  the  first  born,  which  are  written  in  heaven, 
and  to  God  the  Judge  of  all,  and  to  the  spirits  of 
just  men  made  perfect,  and  to  Jesus  the  mediator  of 
the  new  covenant,  and  to  the  blood  of  sprinkling, 
that  speaketh  better  things  than  that  of  Abel.' 

"  Methodism  was  a  joyous  religion.  Its  unceasing 
song  was :  — 

"  '  O  how  happy  are  they 
Who  their  Saviour  obey, ' 

"  A  happier  set  of  mortals  never  lived  than  those 
early  Methodists.  They  abounded  in  good  cheer, 
and  sometimes,  out  of  the  most  scanty  materials, 
created  a  world  of  sunshine.  They  understood  the 
true  philosophy  of  human  life ;  they  were  in  the 
world,  but  not  of  it ;  they  used  the  world,  but  lived 
above  it ;   they  were   dignitaries    of  a   kingdom    to 


272  CENTENNIAL  OF 

which  this  world  contains  no  equal.  Princes  of  the 
blood  royal  Ave  re  their  inferiors,  for  they  felt  that 
they  were  lifted  into  a  sacred  alliance  with  Jesus 
Christ.  The  world  (not  the  outward,  beautiful, 
natural  world),  but  that  moral  world,  in  which  the 
spirit  of  evil  reigns,  —  tliat  world  they  gave  up,  and 
scorned  to  strive  with  the  potsherds,  for  they  had 
a  better  and  more  enduring  substance. 

"  They  seemed  singular,  and  provoked  contempt, 
but  what  cared  they?  Intimidated  they  never 
were. 

"  Their  self-denial  appears  in  another  form,  namely, 
in  the  plan  which  they  adopted  for  carrying  their 
joyous  type  of  Christianity  to  them  who  knew  it  not. 
I  refer  to  the  itinerancy. 

"  Dr.  Buckley,  in  an  able  article  in  the  Methodist 
Review,  on  this  subject,  published  a  few  yeara  ago, 
said: —  'If  there  had  never  been  such  a  constitution 
as  that  now  existing  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church ;  if  such  a  plan  of  ministerial  distribution 
had  been  brought  out  in  theory,  and  submitted  for 
acceptance  or  rejection,  without  previous  successful 
experiment,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
one  vote  in  a  thousand  would  be  given  for  its 
adoption.' 

"  The  thought  is  a  true  one,  and  well  expressed. 

"  The  system  in  the  early  times  bore  with  special 
severity  upon  the  preachers  and  their  families. 
The  circuits  were  large ;  the  distances  from  point  to 
point  were  accomplished  with  great  hardship  ;  the 
parsonages  few,  and  none   of   them   fui-nished;   the 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  273 

salaries  small  and  irregularly  paid.  But  the  weary 
itineraut  pushed  on  over  the  hills  of  our  New 
England,  and  through  the  snows  of  our  rigorous 
winter,  singing  as  he  went :  — 

"  '  The  love  of  Christ  doth  me  constrain, 
To  seek  the  wandering  souls  of  men, 
By  tears,  entreaties,  groans  to  save, 
And  snatch  them  from  a  gaping  grave.' 

"  History  furnishes  nothing  to  compare  with  it. 
Said  DeCourcy :  '  Armies  are  marched  over  the 
A\^rld  at  the  command  of  rulers,  but  for  the  officer 
there  is  authority,  and  for  the  common  soldier  there 
is  the  court  martial,  and  for  both,  bread  as  motive 
for  moving  with  the  column.' 

"  Romanism  has  created  a  hierarchy  that  obeys,  but 
the  priests  are  reduced  to  automatons  in  the  grip  of 
the  iron  system.  But  Methodist  itinerants,  waking 
the  echoes  of  the  primitive  forests  with  their  songs, 
were  not  machines,  but  men,  holding  in  abeyance 
abstract  rights,  for  the  greater  glory  of  God. 

"  Father  Scarlett,  in  the  early  years  of  his  ministry, 
married  a  couple,  a  young  man  who  had  inherited  a 
farm,  and  one  of  the  finest  young  ladies  in  the  charge. 
Their  prospects  for  life,  as  they  started  out  together, 
were  exceedingly  bright.  This  young  man,  however, 
soon  acquired  the  habit  of  drinking,  and  things  went 
on  from  bad  to  w^orse.  At  last  he  mortgaged  his  farm 
to  the  tavern  keeper,  and,  after  a  few  years,  unable  to 
pay  the  interest  on  the  mortgage,  the  tavern  keeper 
foreclosed  and  took  the  farm.  The  man's  wife  had 
been  compelled  to  separate  from  him.     He  was  a  poor. 


274  CENTENNIAL  OP 

wretched,  miserable  drunkarcT.  One  bitter  cold  niglit 
when  he  had  been  to  the  tavern,  somebody  had  treated 
him,  he  staggered  ont  and  fell  in  the  snow,  and  in  the 
morning  was  found  frozen  to  death  by  the  roadside. 

"  It  happened  that  this  Father  Scarlett  was  stationed 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  was  sent  for  to  attend  the 
funeral.  He  knew  the  circumstances.  To  his  aston- 
ishment, the  tavern  keeper  was  master  of  ceremonies, 
and  came  in  with  the  widow,  and  took  his  seat  at  her 
side  at  the  head  of  the  coffin,  and  motioned  to  Father 
Scarlett  that  it  was  time  to  begin.  The  old  hero  stood 
up  and  said :  '  The  man  who  is  in  his  coffin  here  to- 
day, my  friends,  was  murdered.  Usually  when  a 
murder  is  committed,  the  murderer  flees  before  the 
face  of  avenging  justice.  But  in  this  case  things  are 
changed.  He  is  here,  and  is  the  master  of  ceremo- 
nies, and  sits  right  there,'  pointing  right  to  him. 
The  man  was  stunned,  and  hardly  dared  to  say  a 
word.  Then  the  old  gentleman  recounted  the 
circumstances ;  told  the  story ;  offered  a  word  of 
prayer,  and  closed  the  services.  Somebody  said  to 
Mr.  Scarlett ;  '  You've  got  him  mad  with  you ;  he  is 
terribly  angry,  and  is  swearing  vengeance  on  you.' 
He  said,  '  I  have  simply  done  my  duty,  I  can  take 
care  of  myself.' 

"  The  next  morning,  as  he  went  out  to  the  barn  to 
take  care  of  his  horse,  he  saw  the  tavern  keeper  com- 
ing up.  Said  he,  'Mr.  Scarlett,  do  you  think  there  is 
any  salvation  for  any  such  fellow  as  I  am  ? '  '  That 
depends  upon  circumstances.'  'What  must  I  do?' 
'  The  first  thing  you  must  do  is  to  go  down  to  your 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  275 

tavern  stand  and  go  out  of  that  infernal  business.' 
'I'll  do  it.  I  made  up  my  mind  to  do  that.  I  haven't 
slept  a  wink  all  night.'  '  There  is  another  thing  you 
must  do.  You  must  restore  to  that  widow  that  farm 
you  have  stolen.'  '  Well,'  he  said,  '  I  don't  know 
about  that.'  'Well,'  said  the  old  man,  'You  will 
be  damned  as  sure  as  there's  a  hell  if  you  don't  do  it. 
There's  no  hope  for  you.  You  have  got  to  make  res- 
titution.' And,  after  thinking  it  over  a  little  while, 
with  streaming  eyes  lie  said,  'I  will  do  it.'  Then 
Father  Scarlett  said,  '  Let  us  go  into  the  house  where 
it  is  warm ; '  and  there  he  '  prayed  him  through.' 
And  in  the  judgment  of  charity  he  lived  a  Christian 
life  and  died  forgiven. 

"  But  it  required  pluck.  It  was  really  great  to  do 
that  thing.  And  when  you  are  making  up  your  list 
of  heroes,  it  will  not  do  to  leave  such  a  man  off. 

"  Not  far  away  from  the  station,  on  the  Old  Colony 
Railroad,  in  the  town  of  Norton,  Mass.,  in  a  lonely 
grave-yard,  may  be  seen  a  lonely  grave,  marked  by  a 
plain  head-stone.  A  hero  sleeps  in  that  grave.  A 
young  man  whose  name  was  Zadoc  Priest,  a  native 
of  Connecticut,  converted  under  the  labors  of  Lee 
and  Asbury,  soon  heard  the  divine  call  to  preach. 
He  Avas  sent  to  the  old  New  London  circuit.  He  was 
but  twenty-five  years  of  age,  slender  in  form,  and  the 
exposure  of  that  awful  winter  planted  in  him  the 
seeds  of  disease.  The  following  year  he  was  sent  to 
the  Warren  circuit.  He  reached  the  home  of 
Father  Newcomb  and  said,  '  I  have  come  here  to 
die.'     He    lingered  a  few   weeks,  and  then  in    holy 


276  CENTENNIAL  OP 

triumph,  with  the  shout  of  a  conqueror,  ascended  to  a 
throne.  He  was  the  first  Metliodist  preacher  to  fall 
on  New  England  soil,  and  his  sepulchre  is  with  us  to 
this  day.  A  hero  he  was,  and  when  he  went  up, 
received  the  glad  '  All  hail ! '  from  those  whose  faces 
see  God. 

"  Another  illustration  :  Bishop  Soule  was  holding 
a  conference  in  one  of  the  Southern  States.  There 
was  an  appointment  in  a  certain  malarious  district, 
where,  for  several  successive  years,  the  preachers  sent 
to  the  charge  had  died.  But  there  were  human 
beings  living  there,  needing  4he  gospel,  and  some- 
body must  go  and  proclaim  it  to  them.  The  Bishop 
fixed  his  mind  upon  a  certain  bright,  healthy  young 
man,  and  determined  to  send  him.  The  closing 
session  of  the  conference  came.  The  old  hymn  was 
sung,  as  only  Methodist  Preachers  can  sing  :  — 

'  And  let  our  bodies  part.' 

"  The  Bishop  announced  the  fatal  circuit,  and 
coupled  with  it  the  young  man's  name.  He  sprang 
instantly  to  his  feet,  and  his  face  aglow  with  enthu- 
siasm, exclaimed,  'Bishop,  I'll  go,  and  thank  God 
that  I  have  any  appointment.'     He  went  and  died. 

"One  other  illustration:  Elijah  Hedding,  our  Elijah 
Hedding,  was  no  ordinary  man.  Dr.  Burton,  in 
his  Yale  lectures,  calls  him  'the  great  Bishop 
Hedding.'  Indeed,  he  was  a  man  of  no  ordinary 
abilities,  a  preacher  of  remarkable  clearness  of 
thought,  and  a  scholar  of  no  mean  attainments. 

"  Referring,  not  long  before  his  death,  to  the  first  ten 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  277 

years  of  his  ministry,  he  said,  '  All  the  pay  I  received 
for  those  first  ten  years  was  $450,  or  an  average  of 
$45  a  year.  One  year  I  received  on  my  circuit,  exclu- 
sive of  travelling  expenses,  $3.25.'  Did  he  speak 
complainingly  of  all  this?  Let  the  old  hero  answer: 
'  I  had  been  fifty  years  and  one  month  in  the  ministry 
before  my  health  gave  way.  I  have  snffered  a  great 
deal,  have  been  persecuted,  the  most  abusive  and 
slanderous  stories  have  been  circulated  against  me  ; 
men  have  come  to  my  meetings  armed  with  clubs, 
intending  to  assault  me ;  but  if  I  had  fifty  lives,  and 
each  afforded  me  an  opportunity  for  fifty  years'  labor, 
I  would  cheerfully  employ  them  all  in  the  same 
blessed  cause,  and,  if  need  be,  would  suffer  the  same 
privations.'  May  my  right  hand  forget  her  cunning, 
and  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth,  if  I 
ever  cease  to  revere  the  memory  of  such  heroes. 

"  Then  heroism  manifested  itself  ; 

"2.  In  their  undaunted  courage.  They  were  of  the 
stuff  of  which  martyrs  are  made. 

"  They  feared  neither  man  nor  the  devil.  Having 
put  off  the  '  old  man,'  the}^  did  not  pnt  on  the  old 
woman.  Some  of  the  old  preachers  were  good  speci- 
mens of  'muscular  Christianity.'  None  of  them 
subscribed  to  the  doctrine  of  Pascal,  that  '  disease  is 
the  natural  state  of  Christians.'  They  did  not 
proclaim  their  own  dyspeptic  musings,  and  walk 
around  like  moving  gravestones.  They  were  hale, 
hearty,  natural  men  and  women. 

"  They  believed  in  the  Church  militant^  and  some- 
times, when  under  stress,  interpreted  that  phrase  with 


278  CENTENNIAL  OF 

considerable  literalness.  At  camp  meetings,  when  the 
wicked  came  in  like  a  flood,  the  wicked  have  been 
known  to  tremble  and  fall;  while  the  saints 
demonstrated  beyond  a  question,  that  the  power  to 
cast  out  devils  still  remained  in  the  Church. 

"  There  was  a  sturdiness  about  those  old  preacliers 
which  commands  our  admiration.  They  aimed, 
in  every  sermon  or  address,  to  accomplish  something. 
They  were  seldom  circumlocutory.  It  was  not  hard 
to  understand  them.  They  called  things  by  their 
right  names.  They  wielded  a  sledge  hammer,  and 
'a  sledge-hammer  cannot  always  measure  its  touch 
like  a  graver's  tool.' 

"  But  more  than  this.  To  be  a  Methodist,  here  in 
New  England,  one  liundred  years  ago,  or  even  fifty 
years  ago,  meant  much  more  than  it  does  to-day. 
Then  to  be  a  Methodist  meant  social  ostracism  and 
contempt. 

"  In  1809,  Elijah  Hedding  was  appointed  Presiding 
Elder  of  the  New  London  District.  The  district 
was  territorially  large,  but  pecuniarily  small.  To 
accomodate  himself  as  best  he  could,  Mr.  Hedding 
fixed  his  place  of  residence  in  a  certain  town  in 
Hampden  County  in  this  State.  There  was,  at  that 
time,  a  law  in  force  in  the  State,  providing  that  wlien 
a  stranger  moved  into  a  place,  if  the  authorities  of  the 
town  warned  him  to  leave  it,  and  he  did  not,  and 
afterward  became  a  pauper,  the  town  was  not 
obliged  to  support  him,  but  the  expense  of  his  sup- 
port fell  upon  the  State.  Now  a  '  vagrant  Methodist 
preacher, '  as  they  termed  Mr.  Hedding,  moved  into 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  279 

town.  Tliey  knew  he  would  be  a  pauper,  so  it  was 
proposed  to  '  warn  him  out  of  town.'  The  proposi- 
tion, however,  though  seriously  entertained,  was  not 
carried  into  effect,  and  the  poor  '  vagrant '  was 
allowed  to  remain. 

"  It  is  true,  gloriously  true,  that  Methodism  here 
in  New  England,  as  in  almost  every  other  place,  began 
with  the  poor.  They  flocked  to  our  altars  as  doves 
to  their  windows.  But  that  very  fact,  which  ivas 
and  is  the  glori/  of  Methodism,  kept  away  the 
aristocratic  and  fashionable,  who  went  in  large 
numbers  to  the  established  churches,  and  thanked 
God  that  they  were  not  as  other  men  are,  especially 
those  Methodists. 

"  When  Lee  entered  Boston,  in  1790,  a  wide-spread 
apostasy  from  the  faith  of  Puritanism  had  already 
taken  place.  There  was,  indeed,  at  that  time  no  open 
schism  in  the  Puritan  body,  for  the  clergy  moved 
very  slowly  and  cautiously.  Their  aim  was  to 
inculcate  a  total  indifference  to  all  religious  doctrine. 
Confessions  of  faith  were  deemed  of  no  importance. 
The  clergy  freely  mingled  at  ordinations.  The 
sermon  might  be  strictly  orthodox,  and  the  charge 
to  the  clergyman  loosely  heterodox. 

"  In  the  pulpit  of  the  '  Old  South  '  stood  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Eckly,  a  man  of  deep  learning  and  charming 
eloquence,  but  adrift  on  a  stormy  sea  of  doubt. 

"  The  Rev.  James  Freeman  was  the  pastor  of  King's 
Chapel,  once  the  aristocratic  church  of  the  Anglican 
Establishment.  He  stood  high  in  social  position, 
had   excellent  taste,   and  fair   talents,  and,  with  a 


280  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Qultured  voice,  read  the  liturgy,  from  whicli,  how- 
ever, all  prayers  to  Jesus,  and  the  Trinitarian 
Doxologies,  had  been  carefully  taken  out. 

"Time  fails  me  to  speak  in  detail  of  the  other 
pulpits  of  this  metropolis,  when  the  unheralded 
stranger,  Jesse  Lee,  took  his  stand  on  Boston  Common. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that,  of  the  twelve  Puritan  Churches 
in  this  city,  in  1790,  only  one  maintained  its  adher- 
ence to  the  doctrines  of  the  Westminster  Confession. 

"  There  were  two  men, —  be  tlieir  names  spoken  with 
reverence,  —  Dr.  Samuel  Stillman,  and  Dr.  Thomas 
Baldwin,  pastore  of  the  Baptist  Churches,  who  boldly 
proclained  tlie  evangelical  doctrines.  They  sowed 
in  tears,  and  but  for  Christ  in  despair.  The  good 
seed  fell  in  sterile  soil,  and  seemed  to  mock  the 
hope  of  a  resurrection. 

"  It  was  not,  he  it  remembered,  Avith  the  sterner 
features  of  Calvinism  that  Lee  and  his  co-laborers 
here,  in  this  city,  had  to  contend,  but  with  a  form  of 
Christianity,  negative  in  its  teachings,  and  out  of 
which  had  been  taken  the  central  trust  of  the  faith, 
viz:  forgiveness  of  sins  through  faith  in  a  divine 
and  atoning  Saviour. 

"  Thirteen  years  after  the  coming  of  Lee,  there  came 
to  Boston  another  man,  and  his  coming  marks  an 
era  in  the  ecclesiastical  annals  of  this  city. 

"William  Ellery  Channing  was  a  man  preeminently 
endowed,  of  wide  culture  and  fervid  eloquence. 
He  was  not  an  iconoclast,  striking  right  and  left,  but 
of  gentle  disposition,  and,  at  the  beginning  of  his 
ministry,  disposed  to  be  conservative. 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  281 

"  He  hated  Calvinism  as  cordially  as  Jesse  Lee, 
but,  unlike  him,  made  his  fiercest  attacks  upon  the 
doctrine  of  the  deity  of  our  Lord. 

"Says  a  writer  on  the  Unitarian  controversy, — 
'  Dr.  Channing  was  the  forerunner  of  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson,  who  talked  about  the  divinity  of  humanity, 
invested  Jesus  with  a  transcendental  halo,  and 
proclaimed  himself  a  seer,  of  Theodore  Parker, 
versatile,  eloquent,  who  denied  the  supernatural,  of 
O.  A.  Bromeson,  brilliant,  somewhat  vacillating,  but 
possessed  of  a  strong  religious  nature,  which  led  him 
to  say  to  Dr.  Channing  ;  '  My  heart  and  my  soul  cry 
out  for  a  religion  which  has  a  mediator  in  it.'  And 
three  days  after  joined  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.' 

"  Dr.  Channing  was  cotemporary  with  Elijah  Hed- 
ding,  whom  he  probably  never  saw,  if  indeed  he  ever 
hearc^  his  name.  It  was  a  long  way  from  Federal 
street  to  Methodist  alley. 

"If,  on  some  Sunday  evening,  after  the  crowds 
which  filled  Federal  Street  Church  had  gone  oat. 
Dr.  Channing  had  gone  down  to  the  little  humble 
chapel,  he  would  have  found  a  master  of  exposi- 
tion and  argument  in  the  pulpit,  and  he  would  have 
found  the  chapel  filled  with  a  hearty,  happy  com- 
pany of  worshippers,  who  expressed,  in  warm  and 
holy  song,  their  faith  as  it  regarded  Calvinism,  in 
these  words :  — 

"  '  Lord,  I  believe  were  sinners  more 
Than  sands  vipon  the  ocean  sliore, 
Thou  hast  for  all  a  ransom  paid, 
For  all  a  full  atonement  made.' 


282  CENTENNIAL   OF 

"  And  as  it  regarded  the  Boston  apostasy,  in  these 

words :  — 

"  '  The  Holy,  meek,  unspotted  Lamb, 
Who  from  the  Father's  bosom  came. 
Who  died  for  me,  e'en  me  to  atone. 
Now  for  my  Lord  and  God  I  own.' 

"  Lee  and  his  associates  were  not  persecuted  in 
Boston.  Boston  had  too  much  politeness  for  tliat  — 
they  were  just  let  alone.  At  their  first  coming,  no 
hospitable  homes  were  opened,  but  they  were  made 
to  feel  the  sting  of  scornful  contempt.  '  Who  is 
Jesse  Lee?'  was  the  question  doubtless  often  asked, 
in  this  modern  Athens,  and  with  an  intonation  very 
significant.  'Did  he  ever  tarry  at  Cambridge?' 
And  'Who  is  this  company  of  people,  worsliipping 
at  the  North  End,  noisy,  enthusiastic,  and  talking 
always  about  '  Experiencing  religion  ?  ' 

"  I  submit,  it  took  men  and  women  of  nerve,  of  gen- 
uine heroism,  to  withstand  sucli  opposition  ;  and 
such  heroes  were  the  early  Methodists,  that,  despite 
the  sneering  and  the  frowning,  they  boldly  pro- 
claimed their  belief  in  the  Divine  ^lan,  on  whose 
brow  were  thorn-marks,  and  in  whose  hands  were 
nail-prints,  and  by  the  faith  of  whom,  they  received  a 
peace  and  a  holy  joy,  which  made  them  invincible. 

"  Brothers  and  Sisters  of  tlie  Epworth  League  I 
Cherish  the  memory  of  your  heroes!  Never  be 
ashamed  of  that  zeal,  tliat  divine  fire  that  made 
luminous  the  path  the  fathers  trod,  and  that  flamed 
and  glowed  around  them,  as  they  passed  from  earth 
to  heaven.     Never  be  guilty  of  speaking  lightly  of 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  283 

the  cradle  of  piety  in  which  you  have  been  rocked.  — 
Be  Methodist  Episcopalians — broad,  intelligent, 
loyal.  Believe  in  your  traditions.  Recognize  in 
Methodism  a  great  evangelistic  movement,  with 
which  the  hope  and  destiny  of  this  Republic  are 
closely  linked. 

"  Give  no  cowardly  and  equivocal  attachment  to  the 
Church.  Say  with  the  heroic  spirit  of  the  fathers 
and  mothers  of  our  Communion,  '  This  people  shall 
be  my  people.  I  am  with  them  in  the  song  and 
prayer,  with  them  around  the  altar  where  souls  are 
converted  and  made  happy ;  with  them  amid  the  cry 
of  the  penitent,  and  the  shouts  of  the  people ;  with 
them  amid  the  Pentecostal  thunders  of  the  revival, 
and  hope  to  be  with  them  forever,  where  many 
millions  pour  forth  a  volume  of  praise,  louder  than 
the  roar  of  the  ocean,  ol"  the  voice  of  the  storm.'" 

The  Chairman  said  :  "  I  am  trying  to  think  of  some- 
thing suitable  to  sandwich  in  between  the  dullness  of 
this  speech  just  delivered,  and  the  address  of  our 
brother,  who  comes  from  the  city  with  its  twenty- 
story  buildings.  I  ran  across  an  incident  in  refer- 
ence to  Phillips  Brooks.  Mr.  Brooks  has  a  friend  in 
Philadelphia,  by  the  name  of  McVickar,  who  is  a 
little  taller  than  he  is,  and  these  two  gentleman, 
together  with  a  third  who  measures  over  six  feet, 
went  to  Europe  together.  On  the  way  over,  one 
said  to  the  other,  '  I  am  a  little  sensitive  about  our 
all  three  being  so  big,  and  perhaps  when  we  go 
together  to  any  meeting,  we  had  better  separate,  so 
as  not  to  be  so  conspicuous.'     They  came  to  the  city 


284  CENTENNIAL  OP 

of  Leeds,  and  there  they  saw  it  announced  that  a 
gentleman  from  America  would  speak  to  the  work- 
ing people  of  Leeds  about  folks  seen  in  America,  and 
about  American  institutions.  So  they  went,  and  they 
sat  in  different  parts  of  the  house.  After  the  lec- 
turer had  been  going  on  for  some  little  time,  he  said  : 
'  One  of  the  peculiar  cliaracteristics  of  Americans  is, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Japanese,  that  they  are  below 
the  ordinary  stature.  He  could  not  understand  it, 
but  the  American  people  as  a  whole,  were  rather 
small  people.  And,  now,  if  there  happens  to  be  any 
American  person  present,  will  he  rise?'  Up  got 
Mr.  Brooks,  who  said,  'I  am  from  America,  and  I 
am  over  six  feet  in  height.'  'And  perhaps,'  said 
Mr.  Brooks,  '  there  may  be  some  other  American 
here.'  When  up  got  Mr.  Robinson,  who  said,  'I, 
too,  am  from  America.'  And  by  that  time  the  audi- 
ence was  convulsed,  and  the  lecturer,  of  course,  non- 
plussed. When  Mr.  Robinson  said,  'There  may  be 
some  other  one  from  the  States.'  When  up  got  Mr. 
McVickar,  who  said,  '  I  am  six  feet,  four  inches  tall,' 
and  he  fairly  overthrew  the  orator's  remarks. 

"  Now  the  Epworth  people  are  young  people,  yet 
our  programme  is  a  pretty  tall  programme,  and  the 
best  of  it  is  still  to  come  from  our  brother.  Rev.  Dr. 
F.  M.  Bristol." 

Rev.  Dr.  Bristol  said :  "  Beloved  Methodists  of 
New  England:  I  have  three  pictures  in  my  mind 
whenever  Boston  is  mentioned  ;  pictures  painted  in 
indelible  colors  by  the  instruction  of  my  early  years. 
One  is  that  of  Daniel  Webster  delivering  his  oration 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  285 

at  the  laying  of  the  corner  stone  of  Bunker  Hill 
Monument.  Another  is  the  picture  of  Joseph 
Warren  climbing  through  the  window  into  the  Old 
South  Church,  and  delivering  his  brave  denouncement 
of  standing  armies  in  time  of  peace.  The  other  is 
the  picture  of  that  Methodist  itinerant,  Jesse  Lee, 
under  the  Old  Elm  on  Boston  Common,  singing  the 
song  and  preaching  the  sermon  that  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  New  England  Methodism.  Now,  it  is  not 
disparaging  the  brave  utterances  of  Joseph  Warren, 
nor  the  eloquence  of  Daniel  Webster,  to  say  that 
Boston  and  New  England  owe  more  to  that  sermon 
under  the  Old  Elm  than  they  owe  to  that  address  in 
the  Old  South  Church,  or  to  that  classic  oration  on 
Bunker  Hill.  Boston  and  New  England  are  to  be 
congratulated  on  the  influence  of  a  hundred  years  of 
evangelizing.  Christianizing,  and  liberalizing  Metho- 
dism. 

"  My  ancestors  sleep  in  Connecticut,  and  they 
doubtless  heard  Jesse  Lee  in  1789,  when  he  came  to 
New  Haven.  But  I  entertain  the  hope  that  there 
was  not  one  of  them  present  at  the  first  meeting, 
because  Jesse  Lee  gives  us  to  understand  that,  when 
he  was  through  preaching,  no  one  invited  him  home 
to  dinner ;  so  tliat,  for  obvious  reasons,  we  are  not 
anxious  to  trace  our  ancestry  back  to  that  first 
sermon.  I  understand  that  the  citizens  of  Boston 
did  not  invite  him  home,  but  there  was  one  man  who 
'  flocked  about  him,'  from  Lynn,  I  believe,  and  took 
him  home  to  dinner. 

"  We  have  the  fashion  of  characterizing  our  Metho- 


286  CENTENNIAL  OF 

di.sm  according  to  geographical  locality.  But  we 
shall  find  that  we  mean  more  than  a  geographical 
differentiation  when  we  speak  of  New  England 
Methodism,  Southern  Methodism,  and  Western 
Methodism.  The  difference  is  not  essential  and 
doctrinal,  it  is  true.  Southern  Methodism  is  an 
old-fashioned,  conservative,  hospitable,  fervent, 
disciplinary  Methodism.  Western  Methodism  is  not, 
as  some  think,  a  '  wild  and  woolly  Methodism,'  but  a 
dashing,  alert,  progressive  Methodism.  It  is  what 
they  call  a  '  hustling '  Methodism,  but  I  should  not 
use  that  word  here  in  these  relations.  New  England 
Methodism  is  a  cultured  Methodism ;  it  does  not 
like  to  forget  that  it  sprang  from  Oxford  University ; 
a  Methodism  that  believes  an  enlightened  mind  may 
be  twin-angelic  with  a  sanctified  heart;  it  is  a 
Methodism  that  thinks  and  believes,  and  it  believes 
because  it  thinks;  a  Methodism  that  is  loyal  to  all 
truth,  and  hails  it  as  her  own ;  and  welcomes  every 
new  discovery  as  but  another  star  to  lead  wise  men 
to  Christ.  New  England  Methodism  is  as  nearly  as 
possible  that  type  of  Methodism  which  the  Epworth 
League  would  spread  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  this  land,  and  bring  future  Methodism 
up  to. 

"  The  mission  of  the  Epworth  League  is  to  the 
young  people  of  Methodism,  hence  to  all  future 
Methodism.  It  does  not  entertain  a  narrow  and 
shallow  idea  in  confining  its  great  work  to  the 
young  people  of  ]Methodism.  It  believes  in  the 
powers  and  opportunities  of  youth.     I  love  the  soft 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  287 

rich  tones  of  an  old  violin,  and  the  mellow  peal  of 
bells  that  have  chimed  for  a  hundred  years,  but  not  as  I 
love  the  sweet  accents  of  an  old  man's  gracious 
speech.  I  love  old  pictures  that  time  lias  toned  to  a 
beanty  beyond  the  touch  and  the  grace  of  art,  but 
not  as  I  love  an  old  man's  face,  every  line  of  which  is 
a  history,  and  every  smile  of  which  is  a  poem.  I 
love  to  look  upon  the  shaggy  top  of  an  old  oak  with 
a  hundred  tempests  in  its  fibres,  but  not  as  I  love  to 
look  on  the  fcn-m  of  that  grand  old  man,  who,  through 
the  toils  and  struggles  of  the  years  and  decades,  has 
come  to  wear  that  hoary  head  which  is  a  crown  of 
glor}"-  because  found  in  the  way  of  righteousness. 
The  old  are  the  history,  they  are  the  hallowed  and 
inspiring  memory  of  the  Church.  But  the  hope  of 
the  Church  is  in  her  youth,  that  strong  and  handsome 
youth,  full  of  prospect  and  ambition,  with  tlie  health 
of  the  winds  on  its  cheeks,  with  the  light  of  the  stars 
in  its  eyes,  with  the  swell  of  the  ocean  in  its  heart, 
with  the  spirit  of  the  century  thrilling  through  its 
veins,  with  the  prophecy  of  coming  milleniums 
chiming  like  cathedral  bells  in  its  brain,  —  this 
youth  of  Methodism  is  the  hope  of  the  Church,  it  is 
the  hope  of  the  country.  Our  fathers'  blessings  rest 
upon  our  heads,  as  we  go  forward  to  do  a  work 
which  they  themselves  acknowledge  was  never  so 
crowded  upon  the  Church  as  it  is  to-day. 

"  If  I  were  to  have  a  picture  of  Moses,  I  think  I 
should  take  it  when  he  was  climbing  the  sunny  slopes 
of  Pisgah  to  meet  the  angels  wlien  his  work  was  done. 
If  I  were  to  have  a  picture  of  David,  I  should  take  it 


288  CENTENNIAL  OP 

when  from  liis  bowed  liead  the  white  locks  were 
flowing  over  David's  harp,  and  those  fingers  once 
strong  for  battle  were  trembling  on  the  sobbing 
strings,  and  David,  with  twenty  Shakespeares  in  his 
singing  sonl  was  breaking  forth:  'I  have  been  young, 
and  now  am  old,  yet  have  I  not  seen  the  righteous 
forsaken  nor  his  seed  begging  bread.'  If  I  were  to 
liave  a  picture  of  John,  I  should  like  to  have  it  after 
he  had  seen  heaven  opened,  after  the  eternal  sunshine 
had  settled  on  his  head.  But  tliere  are  other  por- 
traits that  I  love  to  look  upon,  that  of  Joseph,  that  of 
Caleb,  that  of  Joshua,  that  of  great  Daniel  facing  a 
whole  empire,  and  standing  true  for  God  and  temper- 
ance in  his  age ;  young  men  of  mighty  faith  and 
courage,  men  devoted,  loyal  and  righteous. 

"  And  so,  while  I  love  to  look  upon  the  old  of  the 
Church,  and  look  upon  the  work  that  they  have  done, 
there  is  also  a  charm  in  the  very  prospect  of  what 
God  has  for  the  young  in  the  Church  of  to-day. 

"  When  I  open  this  old  discipline  of  1789,  I  read 
at  the  very  opening  this  question  and  answer: 
'What  was  the  rise  of  Methodism,  so-called,  in 
Europe?  Answer.  In  1729  two  young  men  read- 
ing the  Bible  saw  they  could  not  be  saved  without 
holiness :  followed  after  it,  and  incited  others  so  to 
do.  In  1737  they  saw  likewise  that  men  are  justified 
before  they  are  sanctified,  but  still  holiness  was  their 
object.  God  then  thrust  them  out'  (those  young 
men)  '  to  raise  up  a  holy  people.' 

"  Is  there  not  significance  in  fact  that  Methodism 
sprang  from  young  brains  and  young  hearts?     Are 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODIvSM.  289 

there  not  high  and  very  comprehensive  things  to  be 
accomplished  by  Methodism,  through  this  marshal- 
ling of  her  forces  in  the  Epworth  League  of  the 
nineteenth  century  ?  This  is  one  (.f  the  great  ques- 
tions of  the  day  with  Methodism  ;  '  How  shall  we 
reach  the  young  ? '  Then  tliere  is  the  other  question  ; 
'  How  shall  we  hold  the  young  people  ?  ' 

•'  Now  there  is  nothing  to  my  mind  more  indicative 
of  growth  than  the  fact  that  a  multitude  of  great 
questions  are  constantly  presenting  themselves  to  the 
Church.  If  there  were  no  new  problems  before  us, 
it  would  be  an  indication  that  we  had  ceased  to  pro- 
gress. If  we  had  no  great  questions  facing  us  it 
would  be  a  proof  that  we  were  behind  the  times,  had 
lost  the  progressive  spirit  of  the  age  and  were  not 
living  up  to  the  privileges  of  the  hour.  The  very 
fact  that  these  questions  come  :  '  What  shall  be  done 
that  the  layman  may  have  a  more  pronounced  voice 
in  the  administration  of  Church  affairs  ? '  '  Shall 
women  be  admitted  into  the  General  Conference?' 
'Shall  the  pastoral  term  be  extended,  or  the  time 
limit  be  removed?'  'What  shall  be  done  with 
our  young  people,  to  use  tliem  more  mightily  for 
the  glory  of  God  ? '  And, '  What  shall  be  done  to 
hold  our  young  people  true  to  Methodism?'  The 
fact  that  these  questions  come,  simply  proves  that 
Methodism  is  moving  on,  and  is  indicative  of  the 
health  of  our  glorious  Church.  It  is  evident  that 
when  we  come  up  to  this  question,  we  meet  one  of 
the  great  problems  that  God  would  have  us  solve. 
And  now,  it  will  not  do  to  say  that  the  very  methods 


290  CENTENNIAL  OP 

which  will  care  for  the  old  Avill  care  for  the  young 
people  of  tlie  Church.  Some  will  say:  'Let  the 
young  people  come  into  the  general  prayer  meeting 
and  that  will  be  all  that  will  be  necessary.  Let  the 
young  people  come  into  the  class  meeting,  where  the 
adults  and  aged  are,  and  they  will  receive  all  needed 
sympathy  and  strength  there.  Let  them  listen  to  the 
preacher  as  from  the  pulpit  lie  preaches  to  the  gen- 
eral congregation  on  the  standard  doctrines  which 
edify  the  experienced  and  thoughtful,  and  there  will 
be  no  need  of  an  Epworth  League.' 

"  Now  it  is  not  true  in  the  Church  of  God,  any  more 
than  it  is  true  on  the  farm,  or  true  in  our  educational 
system,  that  the  same  methods  tliat  will  care  for 
adults  will  care  for  the  children  and  for  the  young  peo- 
ple. I  remember  once,  when  I  was  on  a  farm,  the  boys 
wanted  me  to  ride  a  green  colt.  I  said  '  How  shall 
I  hold  him  ?  '  'As  you  do  old  Bill.'  Then  I  rode 
the  colt,  and  away  he  went,  but  he  did  not  hold. 
Away  he  went  until  he  came  to  a  fence,  —  I  went  on, 
but  left  him  behind.  I  simply  discovered  that  I 
could  not  hold  a  colt  as  I  held  old  Bill.  The 
Church  cannot  hold  the  young  people  in  the 
same  way  and  by  the  same  influences  and  Avith  the 
same  kind  of  inspiration  with  which  it  holds  the  staid 
old  saints.  One  day  I  was  set  to  work  to  plant  cur- 
rant slips,  and  I  went  to  work  to  plant  them  among 
the  bushes,  but  the  gardener  said  to  me,  '  My  boy, 
you  must  plant  these  on  the  sunny  side  of  the  house.' 
We  are  coming  to  learn  that  there  is  a  sunny  side  of 
the  Church,  and  if  there  is  any  member  of  the  Church 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  291 

that  needs  to  be  planted  on  the  sunny  side,  it  is  the 
boy  and  girl,  the  young  man  and  the  young  woman. 
We  have  to  recognize  the  fact,  and  that  it  is  demanded 
for  the  best  growth  of  the  young  j)eople. 

"This  is  conspicuously  an  age. full  of  opportunities 
to  the  youth.  There  was  never  an  age  when  young 
men  and  women  were  so  independent  as  to-day. 
There  was  never  an  age  when  the  average  intelligence 
was  so  great.  There  was  never  an  age  when  the 
young  people  were  infidels  to  so  large  an  extent,  or 
when  to  them  amusements  had  so  great  a  fascination. 
Never  was  there  an  age  when  '  society  '  so  engrossed 
time  and  attention.  It  is  the  hour  for  us  to  rise  up 
and  ask  the  question  :  '  How  shall  we  hold  our  young 
people,  and  keep  them  loyal  to  Methodism  ? ' 

"  The  instruction  from  the  pulpit  in  the  past,  I 
think  you  will  admit,  has  been  too  largely  directed 
to  the  adults,  and  to  those  old  in  years.  But  we 
find  the  necessity  upon  us  of  preaching  to  the  young 
people,  as  well  as  to  the  old  people.  You  will  find 
that  seven-tenths  of  the  preaching  of  the  past  has 
been  to  the  old  folks  rather  than  to  the  young 
people  ;  but  it  is  dawning  upon  the  pulpit  of  this 
age  that  it  is  quite  as  necessary  to  preach  the  young 
people  into  grace  as  it  is  to  preach  the  old  folks  into 
glory. 

"  For  a  number  of  years  local  organizations  have 
been  springing  up  in  the  Church  in  New  England,  in 
Illinois,  in  Michigan,  and  further  West,  each  of 
which  haa  had  some  central  idea  which  the  young 
people  of  that  locality  wished  to  emphasize.     That 


202  CENTENNIAL   OF 

idea  may  have  been  holiness,  or  tlie  social  idea, 
or  the  temperance  idea,  or  tlie  literary,  or  the 
Chautauqua  idea. 

"  In  the  providence  of  God,  and  we  believe  by  His 
direction,  there  came  to  the  mind  of  the  Church  the 
great  thought  of  the  unification  of  all  these 
important  interests  in  one  ;  and,  as  none  of  these 
organizations  had  a  legal  standing  in  the  Church,  or 
had  any  vital,  legal,  disciplinary  connection  with  the 
Church,  it  was  thought  wise  and  providential  that 
they  should  be  gathered  into  one  great,  legal,  dis- 
ciplinary society,  that  should  be  known  as  the  Young 
People's  Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
To  this  end  a  convention  was  called  in  Cleveland, 
with  the  result  of  which  you  are  familiar.  I  have 
sometimes  thought  that  the  men  who  had  the  charge 
of  organizing  this  society,  will  have  pleasure  in  the 
thought  of  it,  and  the  memory  of  it,  through  all  their 
days.     Honor  to  them  ! 

"We  have  in  Indiana  a  poet, — -James  Whitcomb 
Riley,  —  of  great  pathos,  if  not  of  excessive  reverence, 
who  wrote  a  poem  on  '  Jim.'  You  will  remember  that 
tliis  Jim  was. a  jolly,  big-hearted  sort  of  fellow,  but 
'  consumpted-looking,'  and  lie  worked  in  a  slioe 
factory.  He  came  to  die.  Wlien  he  passed  away, 
his  friends  were  saying  good  things  about  Jim,  but 
the  man  who  worked  next  to  him  in  the  shop 
summed  up  his  opinion  of  him  in  these  words : 
'  When  God  made  Jim,  I  bet  you  He  did'nt  do  any- 
thing else  that  day  but  jes'  set  around  and  feel  good.' 
"  And  I  have  sometimes  thouglit  that  that  company  of 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  293 

wise  and  godly  young  Methodists  who  secured  the 
organization  of  these  societies  into  the  Epworth 
League,  'jes'  did'nt  do  anytliing  else'  for  a  whole 
month  but  '  feel  good,'  and  they  have  been  singing 
praises  ever  since,  and  the  whole  Church  is  catching 
the  song,  a  new  pean  of  battle  and  victory.  The 
League  has  grown  to  the  number  of  250,000  members 
and  has  a  bright,  wisely  edited  organ  in  the 
JEJptvorth  Herald  with  a  splendid  list  of  25,000 
subscribers.  I  do  not  think  tliat  tlie  growth  of  any 
similar  organization  can  parallel  this  of  the  Epwoi'th 
League.  It  will  become  the  most  powerful  society 
in  existence,  in  aggressive  work  for  the  glory  of  God 
and  for  the  salvation  of  the  young  people  of 
the  country.  The  first  aim  of  the  Epworth  League 
is  to  promote  a  high  development  of  spiritual 
life  in  the  hearts  of  the  young  people.  Without 
deep  spiritual  life,  without  holiness,  without  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  us,  Methodism  has 
no  excuse  for  existence.  (Amen.)  It  is  spiritual 
power,  or  it  is  no  power.  It  has  not  a  machinery, 
it  has  not  a  ritualism  that  is  sufficient  to  preserve  it 
from  dry-rot,  if  it  lose  the  power  and  the  life  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  This  fundamental  feature  of  the 
Epworth  League  is  the  presence  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  with  the  young  people,  manifested  in  their 
renewed  consecration  to  God  and  the  advancement 
of  the  cause  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in 
absolute  separation  from  the  world,  and  giving  of 
themselves  up  to  the  one  work  of  promoting  holiness, 
that   fundamental    Wesleyan    and    Methodist    idea. 


294  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Just  as  we  read  that  those  two  young  men  were 
thrust  out  to  spread  holiness,  so  we  believe  that  this 
Ep worth  League  has  been  raised  up,  and  these  young 
people  are  thrust  out,  to  spread  Scriptural  holiness 
among  the  youth  of  this  land. 

"  The  second  great  aim  of  the  League  is  educational. 
It  believes  in  the  power  of  an  idea.  It  believes  in 
the  glorious  influence  of  knowledge.  It  believes  in 
the  elevating,  enlightening  might  of  a  good  book. 
You  will  remember  that  Wesley  calls  that  the  turning 
point  in  his  life  where  he  took  up  Jeremy  Taylor, 
and  Law,  and  Thomas  k  Kempis,  and  read  'Holy 
Living'  and  'Holy  Dying,'  'The  Imitation  of 
Christ,'  etc.  From  the  reading  of  these  books  he 
himself  dates  the  change  in  his  whole  religious  and 
spiritual  career.  Many  a  Christian  dates  his  turning 
to  God,  or  giving  himself  to  the  ministry  or  to  the 
missionary  field,  at  wliere  he  read  some  godly  book 
whicli  God  had  indited,  as  truly  as  he  had  ever 
indited  a  sermon  preached  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord  and 
in  the  love  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"In  teaching  our  children  loyalty,  we  present  to 
them  the  histories  of  our  country,  the  Life  of 
Washington,  the  Lives  of  the  Signers  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  and  the  biographies  of  the 
great,  good,  and  heroic  of  the  past.  We  bring  to 
their  view,  and  to  their  knowledge,  history  which  we 
believe  should  be  taught  in  our  public  schools  in  the 
English  language  ;  and  we  believe  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  should  be  taught 


NEW  ENGLAND    METHODISM.  295 

in  the  language  of  Washington,  Adams,  Webster, 
Jefferson,  Hamilton,  and  Lincoln,  and  not  in  the 
language  of  a  foreign  country.  And,  as  we  would 
promote  national  loyalty  by  teaching  the  youth  about 
the  great  political  heroes  of  the  past,  the  wonderful 
history  of  the  yesterdays,  and  instill  into  their  minds 
the  spirit  which  inspires  the  song  of  Whittier  and 
Longfellow  and  Lowell,  so,  for  the  promotion  of 
Methodist  loyalty,  should  we  educate  the  young 
people  of  the  Church  in  the  great  Methodist  classics, 
in  the  history  of  the  Church,  making  them  familiar 
with  the  lives  of  such  heroes  as  Wesley,  Coke, 
Asbury,  Lee,  and  the  other  great  men  who  laid  the 
foundations  of  Methodism. 

"  I  remember  that,  after  my  conversion,  I  took  up 
four  books,  ajid  they  had  as  much  to  do  in  fashioning 
me  as  any  other  influence.  They  were  the  Bible, 
Arthur's  Tongue  of  Fire,  D'Aubigne's  History  of  the 
Reformation,  Stevens'  History  of  Methodism,  and 
History  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, —  won- 
derful books.  I  said  if  I  should  ever  have  boys,  if 
God  ever  blesses  me  with  children,  they  shall  read 
these  great  histories  and  these  great  biographies  of 
men  who  have  been  mighty  for  God.  They  will  fill 
tliem  with  the  heroism  of  the  past,  as  it  was  indeed 
in  the  days  of  the  Fathers.  So  our  Epworth  League 
proposes  and  outlines  a  course  of  instruction  in  this 
direction,  so  that  the  young  peo[)le,  as  they  come  to 
their  activities,  will  come  thoroughly  versed  in  the 
History  of  Methodism,  in  the  Constitution  of 
Methodism,  thoroughly  en  rapport  with  the  spirit  and 


296  CENTENNIAL  OF 

g-enius,  purpose  and  progress  of  Methodism.  The 
League  encourages  the  chapters  to  establish  libraries, 
and  thus  open  up  before  the  minds  of  the  young 
people  courses  of  study  in  all  directions  of  Christian 
knowledge. 

"  It  will  be  found  that  the  Chautauqua  idea  is 
thoroughly  Wesleyan ;  that  Wesley,  in  giving  to  the 
world  that  Christian  library  of  twenty-five  volumes 
or  more,  (finally  condensed  into  twenty-five),  became 
the  father  or  grand-father  of  the  Chautauqua  idea. 
He  had  collected  extracts  from  the  best  Christian 
literature  that  he  could  la}'  liis  hands  on,  and  had 
condensed  them  into  this  library  for  the  instruction 
of  the  people.  He  even  insisted  upon  his  preachers, 
as  they  went  forth  to  instruct  the  people,  giving  them 
literature.  '  Let  them  have  the  books,'  was  his 
order. 

"  I  have  a  letter  in  my  liand,  written  and  signed  by 
John  Wesley ;  it  was  written  to  a  layman.  I  will 
read  a  few  lines  from  the  letter.  By  the  way,  some 
one  was  saying  this  morning  that  the  early  Metho- 
dists were  ignorant  and  unlearned.  But  at  the  same 
time  our  founder  insisted  upon  an  educated  ministry 
and  an  educated  people,  for  he  is  here  giving  instruc- 
tion to  a  young  man  for  the  ministry.  He  said  he 
should  at  least  read  a  little  Greek  and  Latin  every 
day.  There  it  is,  back  in  the  beginnings  of  Metho- 
dism ;  'a  little  Greek  and  Latin  every  day.' 

"  I  read  :  '  You  will  do  well  to  meet  the  children 
constantly,  and  to  establish  as  many  prayer  meetings 
as  you  can ;  over  and  above   tlie   other   advantages 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  297 

attending  them,  they  are  excellent  nurseries  for 
young  preachers.'  (Out  of  these  prayer  meetings 
are  to  come  the  preachers  of  the  future.)  '  Then  you 
should,  without  delay,  establish  the  Methodist  Disci- 
pline in  all  the  country  places.  The  spreading  of 
the  books  is  always  a  means  of  increasing  awakening 
in  any  place.' 

"  There  we  have,  back  there  in  1781,  the  '  spread- 
ing of  the  books,'  the  increasing  Methodist  literature 
among  the  people,  as  a  means  for  increasing  spiritual 
power  and  revival  awakening.  And  so,  I  believe,  the 
more  highly  we  educate  our  young  people,  the  better 
we  prepare  the  way  for  sweeping  revivals,  for  pro- 
found convictions  on  the  part  of  the  rising  generation. 

"  The  next  idea  is  the  social  one.  Christianity 
was  never  intended  to  destroy  the  social  instinct.  It 
was  intended  to  foster  and  promote  its  cultivation. 
In  ministering  to  the  social  needs  of  pure,  intelligent 
young  people,  the  Epworth  League,  in  the  providence 
of  God,  has  a  mission  broad  as  Methodism,  nay, 
broad  as  American  society. 

"'Society'  is  an  ambiguous  term.  We  hardly 
know  what  that  means.  When  you  say  a  certain 
gentleman  is  a  '  society '  man,  we  are  in  doubt  as  to 
what  is  meant.  In  Methodism  it  sometimes  militates 
against  the  high  religious  character  of  a  woman  if  we 
say  she  is  a  '  society '  lady.  We  think  we  can 
hardly  depend  upon  that  brother  at  the  prayer  meet- 
ing, if  we  say  he  is  a  '  society  '  man  ;  while  the 
'  society '  sister  is  rarely  found  in  class  meeting. 
Then   the   dance   is  associated   with  '  society ' ;   the 


298  CENTENNIAL  OF 

wine-cup  is  associated  with  '  society';  the  theatre  is 
associated  with  '  society  ' ;  and  our  young  people  are 
coming  in  contact  with  '  society.' 

"What  must  be  done?  Some  effort  must  be  put 
forth  for  holding  the  young  people  to  high  ideals  of 
character  in  this  day  when  a  degenerate  '  society,' 
a  worldly  and  godless  '  society,'  has  such  fascination 
to  the  young  people.  High  ideals  must  be  placed 
before  our  young  men  and  women.  There  are  nobler 
pleasures  then  these  we  have  mentioned,  —  pleasures 
which  the  human  heart  may  indulge  in  to  the  glory 
of  God,  —  and  these  pleasures  must  not  be  denied  to 
the  young  people  of  Methodism.  It  is  a  part  of  the 
mission  of  the  Epworth  League,  to  place  before  our 
young  people  the  pleasures  that  will  minister 
properly  and  righteously  to  their  social  life.  Wes- 
ley's idea  was  perhaps  not  the  idea  that  we  should 
advance  to-day.  He  said  the  students  of  the  college 
should  be  indulged  with  nothing  that  the  world  calls 
'pla)'.'  'Let  this  rule  be  observed  with  the 
strictest  attention,  for  those  who  play  when  they  are 
young  will  play  when  they  are  old.' 

"In  this  age  we  do  not  believe  in  that  sentiment. 
It  is  not  insisted  upon  by  the  spirit  of  Methodism 
to-day.  We  do  believe  that  there  is  harmless  play 
for  the  children  in  this  glorious  paradise  of 
American  Methodism ;  and  there  are  harmless 
amusements  and  delights  and  pleasures  for  the  grow- 
ing young  people,  which  should  not  be  denied  them 
by  tlie  strictest  piety  and  by  the  truest  conformity 
to  all  the  laws  of  God  and  the  Church. 


ISTEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  299 

"  Finally,  this  Epworth  League  has  a  mission  in 
organizing  the  young  people  of  Methodism  for  work, 
evangelistic  work,  —  work  of  the  young  people,  by 
the  young  people,  and  for  the  young  people.  Only 
twenty-five  per  cent,  of  the  young  men  of  America 
go  to  church.  Five  per  cent,  only  are  members  of 
the  Church.  Ninety-five  per  cent,  of  all  the  fre- 
quenters of  saloons  are  young  men.  Of  the  500,000 
arrests  annually  made  in  our  great  cities,  at  least 
375,000  are  young  men,  and  100,000  are  minors. 

"  Is  there  not  a  work  for  the  Church  to  do  in  reachino- 
and  saving  the  young  men  of  the  country  before  they 
are  destroyed  by  intemperance  and  crime  ?  Visit  the 
penitentiary,  and  you  will  hnd  that  a  majority  of  the 
convicts  are  young  men,  and  the  average  age  is  below 
twenty-five  years.  Is  there  not  something  for  the 
Church  to  do  for  these  young  men  before  the  prison 
becomes  their  doom  ?  The  Epworth  League  has  a  mis- 
sion to  the  swarming  millions  of  young  men,  to  reach 
them  with  the  warmth  and  generosity  and  sympathy 
of  the  young  heart,  as  no  other  power  and  influence 
can  possibly  reach  them.  The  Epworth  League  has 
spread  from  Maine  to  California,  and  from  the  lakes 
even  unto  the  galf.  More,  this  glorious  work  has 
spread  to  Canada,  to  China,  and  to  India,  and  will 
soon  be  in  everv  land  beneath  the  burnino-  sun. 
Thank  God,  the  Epworth  League  is  in  the  South. 
And  may  I  not  say  here  in  New  England,  — generous- 
hearted  New  England,  liberal-minded  New  England, 
sweet-spirited  New  England,  —  may  I  not  say,  that  I 
entertain  the  blessed  hope  that  this  League  will  be 


300  CENTENNIAL   OF 

one  of  the  grandest  instruments  in  the  hands  of  Prov- 
idence for  uniting  this  glorious,  this  mighty, 
American  Methodism  into  one  great,  advanced,  all- 
conquering  host  ? 

"I  know  that  the  young  heart,  the  young  brain, 
the  progressive  public  spirit  of  tlie  South  is  crying 
out  for  the  union  of  the  hearts  of  the  Methodists  of 
America.  When  Mr.  Waller,  delegate  from  the 
Wesleyan  Conference,  made  his  address  at  the  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  he  said :  '  I  have  thought  what  a  wonderful 
power  this  Methodism  in  America  would  be  if  it 
were  all  one  and  united ' ;  and  like  a  shaking, 
mighty  wind  did  the  applause  sweep  througli  that 
assembly.  And  many  a  young  man  came  to  me  with 
tears  in  his  eyes  and  said :  '  We  believe  in  the  union 
of  hearts  and  sjaupathies  as  Methodists.  God  speed 
the  day  when  we  shall  see  eye  to  eye  and  be  one  in 
heart,  as  we  are  one  in  origin  and  one  in  faitli.' 

"  In  the  name  of  our  common  schools  and  our  com- 
mon liberties,  against  an  alien  Romanism,  we  raise 
the  banner  of  a  loyal  and  united  Methodism.  In  the 
name  of  home,  humanity,  and  native  land,  against  the 
united  forces  of  the  rum  power,  we  raise  the  white 
banner  of  a  united,  total-abstinence  and  prohibition 
Methodism.  In  the  name  of  our  common  Master, 
wlio  will  conquer  and  sweep  back  the  tide  of  sin, 
against  the  alliance  of  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the 
devil,  we  raise  the  banner  of  a  united,  pure,  and 
Holy  Ghost  American  Methodism.  May  God  unite 
us,  and  may  God  use  this  Epwortli  League  to  bring 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  301 

up  a  generation  that  shall  be  mightier  even  than  the 
generation  that  has  gone." 

The  Chairman  said  :  "  Let  us  all  sing,  — 

'  Arise,  my  soul,  arise.'  " 

The    Chairman    called    upon    Bishop     Foster   to 
pronounce  the  benediction. 


LYNN  COMMON  CHURCH. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

GRAND   BANQUET  IN   OLD   FANETJIL   HALL. 

Hon.  C.  C.  Corbin  in  the  chair. 

After  a  half-hour  of  social  conversation,  renewal  of 
acquaintances,  and  formation  of  new,  the  six  hundred 
guests  gathered  in  the  main  hall,  balconies,  and  gal- 
leries of  the  one  "  Cradle  of  Liberty,"  aS  six  o'clock, 
and,  after  taking  their  places  at  the  richly  provided 
tables,  the  Chairman  of  the  evening  said:  — 

"Upon  an  occasion  like  this;  when  our  hearts  are 
all  aglow  with  praise  to  God,  it  seems  proper  that 
first  of  all,  we  sing  — 

"  *  Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow.'" 

After  the  singing,  the  Chairman  called  upon  Bishop 
Willard  F.  Mallalieu  to  invoke  the  divine  blessing, 
which  he  did. 

The  Chairman  then  said  :  "  The  gathering  of  Meth- 
odists in  which  all  keep  their  seats  would  be  out  of 
place.  I  have  asked  Rev.  Dr.  Brodbeck  to  lead  us 
in  singing  — 

"  '  Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds 
Our  hearts  in  Christian  love;' 

two  verses ;   and  you  are  requested  to  stand  as  a 
matter  of  comfort." 

[303] 


304  CENTENNIAL  OF 

After  the  singing,  the  Chairman  said  :  "  Ladies  and 
gentlemen  would  be  a  title  far  too  formal  for  one 
Methodist  to  use  as  he  addresses  others  in  a  place 
like  this.  Brethren  and  sisters  :  I  congratulate  you 
and  ourselves  together  that  this  evening  finds  us  in 
this  time-honored  place ;  here  where  men  have  gath- 
ered in  darkest  days,  when  all  hearts  fairly  wavered, 
but  have  gone  forth  to  ring  out  the  songs  of  hope 
and  cheer.  It  is  not  well  that  he  who  presides  over 
gatherings  like  this  should  be  allowed  to  have  much 
to  say.  If  he  were  given  to  talk,  it  would  be  well 
for  you  to  remind  him  of  the  story  of  the  Irish  pre- 
siding officer,  who  was  greatly  troubled  by  a  man  in 
the  congregation  who  would  persistently  jump  up 
and  be  ready  to  make  a  speech  on  all  occasions. 
After  the  fellow  had  made  two  or  three  speeches,  the 
presiding  officer  said,  '  Down  there  !  What  we  want 
of  you  is  silence,  and  mighty  little  of  that.' 

"  I  do  not  wish  to  give  you  the  opportunity  to  say 
that  of  me.  Nor  do  I  hope  that  our  good  brethren 
on  this  programme,  that  says  five-minute  speeches, 
will  need  to  have  a  reminder.  In  the  olden  time  a 
brakeman  upon  the  railroad  train  was  a  man  of  con- 
siderable importance.  He  had  the  power  to  stop  the 
train.  In  these  latter  days,  with  automatic  brakes 
doing  the  work,  the  ability  to  stop  the  train  lies  in 
the  power  that  carries  the  train.  Will  my  brethren 
and  friends  who  are  the  speakers  please  bear  in  mind 
I  am  but  a  brakeman,  and  that  they  are  automatic, 
and  can  shut  off  when  they  will,  and  keep  it  all  in 
mind  ? 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  305 

"  Methodism  in  New  England.  How  our  hearts 
thrill  with  the  thought  of  the  wonderful  things  done 
in  this  hundred  years  gone  b3^  Daniels,  in  his 
History  of  Methodism,  says  :  '  Methodism  is  divine. 
It  sweeps  in  the  gale ;  it  glows  in  the  fire ;  it  speaks 
with  the  tongues  of  Pentecost.'  A  man  that  would 
represent  New  England  must  bring  all  these  elements 
to  bear;  he  must  be  a  man  filled  with  life,  united  to 
all  into  which  has  been  breathed  the  breath  of  lives ; 
he  must  be  a  man  of  power  that  breathes  life  into 
dead  bodies.  And  when  one  man  is  found  that  thor- 
oughly represents  New  England,  he  must  have  these 
elements  in  him.  It  was  the  pleasure  of  the  General 
Conference  to  elect  from  New  England  one  man  who 
thoroughly  carries  with  him  in  all  the  acts  of  his 
life  these  elements  that  make  so  large  a  part  of  New 
England  Methodism.  Out  on  the  frontier,  in  the  far 
South,  wherever  work  is  found  to  do,  there  our  New 
England  Bishop  is  ready  to  do  that  work.  It  is  ni}'- 
pleasure  to  present  to  you  one  who  needs  no  intro- 
duction to  a  New  England  Methodist  audience.  I 
present  to  you  Bishop  Mallalieu." 

Bishop  Mallalieu  said:  "Sisters  and  brethren: 
An  hour  like  this  certainly  comes  to  any  of  us  but 
once  in  a  lifetime.  Many  whom  we  have  known 
may  have  desired  to  see  this  hour  and  participate  in 
these  religious  anniversaries,  which  we  have  been 
permitted  to  share,  but  they  have  passed  on  before, 
and  we  are  left  to  rejoice  together  in  this  auspicious 
hour. 

"We  are  certain  that,  when  we  have  passed  away, 


306  CENTENNIAL  OP 

others  will  follow  us  who  will  look  forward  eagerly, 
and  with  joyous  anticipations,  to  a  repetition  of 
grander  services  and  ceremonies  and  anniversaries 
than  these  in  which  we  have  participated.  Let  us 
thank  God  for  the  past.  Let  us  look  forward  with 
joyful  hope  for  the  future.  I  believe  that,  and  espe- 
cially within  the  last  few  years,  New  England  consti- 
tutes the  choicest  spot  of  all  this  earth.  I  have  not 
seen  all  of  it,  but  I  have  seen  much,  and  noticed  it 
carefully.  But  I  believe  there  is  no  place  like  New 
England.  I  look  upon  its  scenery,  its  rock-bound 
shores,  its  broad  ocean,  its  towering  mountains,  its 
delightful  valleys,  its  singing  brooks,  its  rivers  hasten- 
ing to  the  sea,  its  skies  as  blue  as  any  that  hang  over 
Italy,  and  I  rejoice  in  this  heritage  God  has  given  us. 
But  if  I  were  asked  the  question,  'What  is  the 
choicest  portion  of  New  England?'  I  should  cer- 
tainly say  Massachusetts.  It  is  a  great  misfortune 
not  to  be  born  in  this  highly  favored  State.  I 
congratulate  myself  on  the  good  taste  and  judgment 
of  my  father  and  mother  in  making  Massachusetts 
their  home.  .  And  though  our  honored  Governor, 
who  is  with  us  to-night,  had  the  misfortune  to  be 
born  in  another  State,  I  certainly  appreciate  his  good 
judment  in  leaving  that  and  making  Massachusetts 
his  home.  And  if  I  were  to  pursue  this  thought  just 
a  little  further,  I  should  say  that  of  all  Massachusetts, 
Boston  and  vicinity,  the  vicinity  including  the  towns 
immediately  around  about  her,  is  the  choicest  part  of 
the  Commonwealth.  And  if  I  were  to  select  the 
place,  the  spot  pre-eminent  above  all  others  in  Bos- 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  307 

ton,  full  of  glorious  and  glowing  memories,  inspiring 
every  patriot's  heart  with  high  and  holy  devotion, 
I  should  select  the  very  spot  where  we  are  gathered 
together  to-night. 

"  Thank  God  for  New  England.  Thank  God  for 
Massachusetts.  Thank  God  for  Boston.  Thank 
God  for  Faneuil  Hall.  Now,  with  malice  toward 
none,  and  with  charity  for  all,  if  I  were  asked  where 
the  best  people  are  in  Boston  and  vicinity,  I  would 
say  they  are  in  Faneuil  Hall  to-night.  The  choicest 
pick  of  all  New  England.  And  if  my  wife  were  only 
here,  I  would  make  it  more  personal  still. 

"Of  course  this  is  a  time  for  memory,  and  I  some- 
times think  that  no  living  man  has  more  occasion  to 
thank  God  that  Jesse  Lee  came  to  New  England 
than  I.  I  was  brought  up  in  my  early  life  on  the 
Westminster  Catechism,  and  if  I  had  not  changed 
my  diet,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  I  should  have 
starved  to  death.  But  f  rejoice  that  Jesse  Lee  came 
from  the  Southland  and  preached  this  gospel  of  a 
full  and  free  salvation  all  through  this  region  of 
country,  and  at  last  it  reached  me  and  brought  me 
hope  and  joy  and  blessing.  A  friend  of  mine  (and, 
perhaps  I  can  illustrate  my  thought  by  this  little 
anecdote)  was  riding  on  the  cars  not  a  great  while 
ago  with  that  somewhat  famous  man,  Robert  Inger- 
soll,  and  he  said  to  him,  'Mr.  Ingersoll,  will  you 
tell  me  what,  in  your  opinion,  accounts  for  the  im- 
mense growth  of  Methodism  in  the  United  States  ? ' 
—  '  Why,'  said  Mr.  Ingersoll,  '  I  will  tell  you  what  I 
think  about  it.'     Said  he,  '  You  Methodists  believe 


308  CENTENNIAL  OF 

ill  a  God,  and  you  believe  in  a  devil,  and  you  believe 
in  heaven,  and  you  believe  in  hell,  and  you  keep 
talking  to  people  about  these  things  until  tliey 
believe  in  them.  And  then,'  said  he,  'your  God 
is  a  being  that  stands  ready  to  boost  a  fellow  if  he 
will  only  try  to  climb.'  And  for  an  infidel,  it  is  one 
of  the  best  summations  of  Methodist  theology  I  have 
heard  for  many  a  day.  I  only  wish  that  that  man 
would  just  try  to  climb,  and  see  how  God  would  help 
him.  I  am  sure  he  would  find  he  was  very  nigh,  a 
God  not  very  far  off  in  time  of  need. 

"I  was  talking,  once  on  a  time,  with  a  Democratic 
candidate  for  Governor.  I  will  not  tell  you  anything 
more  about  him  than  simply  say  this,  that  I  went  to 
get  a  subscription  to  pay  off  a  church  debt  in  his 
town,  and  he  said,  'I  don't  believe  in  churches 
anyway,  and  particularly  in  so-called  Methodist 
churches.'  Said  I,  'What  do  you  know  about 
Methodist  churches?'  I  had  never  seen  the  man 
before.  He  is  an  eminent  lawyer  in  this  city.  Now 
I  will  not  'give  him  away.'  He  is  not  in  this  hall, 
although  some  of  his  relatives  are  pretty  near  me 
now  while  I  am  talking.  '  Why,'  said  he,  '  I  have 
been  to  a  Methodist  meeting  twice  in  my  life.'  Said 
I,  '  You  can't  judge  of  Methodism  by  two  meetings 
any  more  than  you  can  of  a  building  by  bricks.' 
—  '  But  they  are  a  morose,  unhappy  set  of  people. 
They  won't  let  their  members  go  to  the  theatres.' 
I  thought  of  him  to-day  when  Dr.  Upham  was  speak- 
ing of  those  who  could  not  go  and  did  not  want  to. 
And  I  said  to  him,  as  I  pulled  my  chair  up  to  him, 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  309 

'Look  me  over  from  head  to  foot.'  He  didn't  know 
what  was  coming,  of  course.  And  he  began  to  look 
me  over  to  see  what  was  coming  next.  '  Now,  do 
you  think,'  said  I,  '  that  I  look  like  an  unhappy, 
morose,  discontented,  and  sour  kind  of  man  ?  Now, 
don't  I  look  as  happy  as  a  Turk  ? '  Now,  I  don't 
know  how  a  Turk  looks.  My  friend.  Dr.  Buckley, 
may  be  able  to  explain.  '  And,'  said  I,  '  I  want  you 
to  understand  that  I  don't  look  half  as  happy  as  I 
feel,  for  my  soul  is  filled  with  the  joy  of  God's  salva- 
tion, and  what  I  wish  is  that  you  had  it,  too.'  So 
I  exhorted  him  a  little  on  the  old  Methodist  line. 
The  feeling  of  my  heart  is,  — 

'Oh  tliat  the  world  might  taste  and  see  the  riches  of  his  grace  ; 
The  arms  of  love  that  compass  me  would  all  mankind  embrace.' 

For  the  Methodist  gospel  takes  in  Democratic  can- 
didates for  Governor  as  well  as  other  people. 

"  Now  there  is  just  this  that  I  wish  to  say,  by 
way  of  exhortation  and  improvement.  The  blessings 
God  has  showered  upon  us,  these  hundred  years, 
bringing  us  in  that  short  space  from  that  fourteen 
thousand  to  more  than  four  millions  of  members  in 
this  country — (when  we  count  all  the  membership 
of  all  the  Methodist  Churches)  —  the  increase  of 
our  wealth,  of  our  social  position,  bring  responsibili- 
ties that  only  can  be  discharged  by  us  when  we  exer- 
cise the  mightiest  faith  in  God,  and  when  we  bring 
to  the  altar  of  service  consecrated  hearts  and  lives, 
and  all  possessions  with  which  he  has  dowered  our 
being  here  in  this  life. 


310  CENTENNIAL   OP 

"And  so,  as  we  turn  our  faces  toward  the  second 
century  of  our  New  England  Methodism,  my  hope  and 
prayer,  my  unspeakable  desire  is,  that  God  would  lead 
us  to  give  ourselves  and  all  we  have  and  all  we  hope 
for,  to  His  blessed  service  for  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
and  for  the  good  of  humanity.  And  let  us  resolve 
this  one  thing,  that  we  will  rise  above  the  past  that 
sought  to  punish  crime  with  vindictive  wrath,  that 
sought  later  with  remedial  efforts  to  save  the  crimi- 
nal and  society,  and  let  us  rise  to  that  supreme 
height  of  Christian  privilege  that  demands  that  we 
shall  speak  and  labor  for  the  prevention  of  poverty, 
ignorance,  and  sin,  and  so  make  this  New  England  of 
ours  to  bud  and  blossom  with  beauty,  like  the 
gardens  of  our  God.  Oh,  that  with  one  heart  and 
with  determined  faith  we  may  enter  upon  the  work  of 
the  second  century  of  our  New  England  Methodism  I " 

The  Chairman  said:  "A  hundred  years  ago  Mas- 
sachusetts had  scarcely  as  many  inhabitants  as  has 
the  city  of  Boston  this  evening.  In  all  that  long 
chain  of  years  Massachusetts  has  had  the  influence 
of  the  Methodist  Church,  not  simply  making  church 
members,  but  making  good  citizens,  citizens  that 
have  done  honor  to  the  State,  that  have  given  but 
little  trouble  to  the  rulers  thereof.  In  all  these 
long  years,  —  a  hundred  years,  —  Massachusetts  has 
been  honored  constantly  by  the  men  that  have  held 
the  highest  positions  within  the  State,  who  have 
occupied  the  gubernatorial  chair.  But  in  all  these 
years  no  man  has  done  more  honor  to  the  State,  no 
one  has  made  himself  more  truly  a  brother  to  every 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  311 

man  who  thinks  well  and  does  well,  than  he  who 
fills  that  chair  this  hour.  I  have  the  honor  to  pre- 
sent to  you  the  Governor  of  the  State  of  Massachu- 
setts, His  Excellency  J.  Q.  A.  Brackett."  (Applause.) 
"  I  think  these  cheers,  Governor,  cover  not  only  the 
fact  that  we  honor  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts, 
but  the  next  Governor  of  Massachusetts." 

Governor  Brackett  said:  "Mr.  President,  Ladies 
and  Gentlemen ;  I  thank  you  most  sincerely  for  this 
very  kind  and  cordial  reception.  In  the  Memorial 
Address  delivered  by  my  friend,  your  brother,  the 
Rev.  J.  W.  Hamilton,  upon  the  eigthy-fifth  anniver- 
sary of  the  sermon  of  Jesse  Lee,  under  the  Old 
Elm  on  the  Common,  an  address  whicli  I  have  had 
the  pleasure  of  reading,  he  relates  that  when,  in 
1740,  in  the  month  of  September  (just  a  century 
and  a  half  ago  last  month),  George  Whitefield  came 
from  Rhode  Island  to  Boston,  he  was  met  on  the 
road  by  the  Governor's  son,  accompanied  by  a  dele- 
gation of  ministers,  who  received  him  with  great 
gladness  and  tendered  to  him  tlie  hospitality  of  the 
town.  Whether  the  Governor's  son  welcomed  him 
on  his  own  account,  because  of  his  personal  friend- 
ship and  admiration,  or  was  deputed  by  his  father  to 
extend  an  official  greeting,  I  do  not  know.  But 
to-night,  my  friends,  the  Governor  of  the  Common- 
wealth sends  not  his  son  or  any  other  deputy,  but 
comes  himself  in  person  to  this  grand  Old  Cradle 
of  Liberty,  to  offer  his  earnest  official  and  personal 
greeting,  not  to  a  solitary  Methodist  minister  coming 
from  another  State,  but  to  this  vast  concourse  of  the 


312  CENTENNIAL  OP 

clergy  and  the  laity  of  that  denomination,  who  have 
assembled  within  these  walls,  these  time-honored 
walls,  to  celebrate  the  consummation  of  a  century  of 
noble  achievement  by  a  time-honored  Church. 

"  While  in  the  civil  polity  of  Massachusetts  the 
Church  and  State  are  separated,  the  State  in  spirit 
and  in  sympathy,  through  me  as  its  representative, 
to-night,  with  great  gladness,  clasps  hands  with  the 
Methodist  Church,  in  this  fitting  commemoration  of 
the  close  of  a  hundred  years  of  New  England 
Methodism.  While  Massachusetts  makes  no  dis- 
tinction between  the  different  religious  sects  which 
exist  within  her  boundaries ;  while  she  gives  to  each 
its  due  for  what  it  has  done  in  promoting  the  spirit- 
ual welfare  of  her  people  ;  while  she  respects  the 
principles  and  opinions  of  each ;  while  she  rejoices 
to  see  them  all  working  together  in  harmony,  not 
warring  with  one  another,  but,  like  the  divisions  of 
one  grand  army,  warring  with  the  common  foe  of 
righteousness,  each  in  its  own  way,  by  its  own 
methods,  upon  its  own  lines,  laboring  for  the  salva- 
tion of  men,  and  for  all  that  makes  for  the  coming 
good ;  it  is  becoming  that,  on  this  occasion,  b}^  the 
presence  and  voice  of  her  Chief  Executive  Officer, 
she  pay  her  respects  especially  to  this  great  denomi- 
nation, which  includes  within  its  membership  so 
large  a  proportion  of  the  citizens  of  the  Common- 
wealth, and  which  views  with  satisfaction  and  joy 
to-night  a  century  radiant. 

"  While  otliers  can  more  intelligently  and  appro- 
priately  narrate    what   the    Methodist   Church   has 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  313 

done  for  the  religious  development  of  Massachu- 
setts, it  is  just  and  proper  that,  speaking  as  a 
civil  officer,  I  in  a  word  acknowledge  its  contri- 
butions to  the  political  and  moral  progress  of  the 
State  and  the  Nation.  History  tells  that  this  was 
the  first  Church  to  recognize  officially  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States,  and  to  pledge  its  loyalty 
to  the  government.  It  tells,  also,  how  it  has  ever 
stood  up  for  liberty  and  the  rights  of  men;  how 
earnestly  and  undeviatingly  it  devoted  itself  to 
the  anti-slavery  cause,  when  it  cost  something  to  do 
it ;  early  declaring  the  incompatibility  of  slave- 
holding  with  membership  in  its  communion.  And 
it  has  shown  like  devotion  to  the  temperance  cause, 
and  to  every  other  good  cause.  In  its  attitude 
towards  these  and  other  great  reformatory  move- 
ments which  have  blessed  the  Commonwealth  and 
the  Republic,  it  has  ever  kept  abreast  with  the  best 
and  most  advanced  sentiments  of  Massachusetts^  and 
has  made  itself  one  of  the  civil  as  well  as  ecclesiasti- 
cal forces  which  have  shaped  the  character  and  the 
destiiny  of  the  Commonwealth.  Its  career  has  been 
rich  in  accumulated  years ;  it  has  been  richer  still 
in  accomplishments.  One  centennial  stage  in  that 
career  has  just  been  completed  ;  another  now  begins. 
That  the  second  century  may  equal  the  first  in  use- 
fulness, in  helpfulness,  and  in  glory,  is  the  best 
prayer  I  can  offer  for  it  to-night. 

"  Mindful,  Mr.  President,  of  the  five-minutes'  rule 
which  the  body  wisely  adopted  for  the  limitation  of 
these  speeches,  and  noticing  that  the  minute  hand  of 


314  CENTENNIAL   OF 

the  clock  has  already  passed  beyond  the  space  to 
which  I  am  entitled  as  allotted  to  me,  and  not  desir- 
ing to  overstep  this  limit,  I  will  close  with  this  brief 
salutation,  and  with  this  expression  of  my  apprecia- 
tion of  the  honor  and  pleasure  of  being  invited  to 
be  present  and  to  take  part  in  the  exercises  of  this 
memorable  Anniversary." 

The  Chairman  said:  "To-night  we  rightly  congrat- 
ulate ourselves  upon  the  fact  that  the  Methodist 
Church  is  a  strong  Church,  —  strong  even  in  New 
England.  But  it  was  not  always  thus.  There  was 
a  time  when  the  Methodist  was  a  '  feeble  folk.'  And 
in  that  day  they  had  to  look  beyond  New  England 
to  find  willing  hearts  and  ready  hands  to  minister  to 
their  needs.  It  was  from  Maryland,  it  was  from 
Baltimore,  that  there  came  the  help  that  was  needed 
in  tlie  early  days  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  New 
England.  And  upon  this  evening  it  seems  most 
appropriate  that  one  who  represents  the  Methodist 
Church  in  Maryland  should  have  a  place  in  our 
gathering  of  joy.  I  have  the  pleasure  of  presenting 
to  you  the  Rev.  A.  M.  Courtnay,  D.D.,  of  Baltimore." 

Rev.  Mr.  Courtnay  said :  "  Mr.  Chairman.  Shall 
I  say  '  Sisters  and  Brethren  ? '  It  is  a  strange  use  of 
lano-uage  for  me.  Down  our  way  we  do  not  so 
speak.  We  simply  say  '  Brethren,'  on  the  theory  that 
tlie  '  Brethren  '  embrace  the  '  Sisters.' 

"  I  find  myself  fortunate,  sir,  in  being  numbered 
among  those  who  have  been  invited  to  this  place, 
especially  since  we  were  certified  that  it  should  be 
the  last  for  a  hundred  years.     And  to  me  it  is  an 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  315 

element  of  the  happiness  of  the  occasion  that  we  are 
assembled  in  Faneuil  Hall,  where  generals  fill  all  the 
place.  But,  sir,  I  crave  the  courteous  privilege  of 
saying  a  few  words  in  answer  to  many  questions  that 
have  reached  me  about  'My  Maryland.'  You  will 
pardon  me  for  my  provincialism.  I  have  found  it 
necessary  to  be  a  little  self-asserting  these  last  few 
days,  in  order  to  preserve  ray  self-respect. 

"Nor  am  I  able  to  neutralize  the  charm  of  this 
seductive  Boston,  so  that  I  may  go  home  to  Mary- 
land thoroughly  loyal,  but  by  busying  myself  with 
the  thought  over  and  over  again,  Baltimore  has  this 
among  other  things :  we  have  a  good  deal  of  Meth- 
odism in  Baltimore.  My  good  friend,  Dr.  Buckley, 
last  evening  notified  you  that  Methodism  did  not 
begin  in  New  England.  I  am  happy  to  inform  him 
this  evening,  —  and  I  have  suspected  sometimes  that 
in  his  studies  of  '  origins  '  he  mixes  dates  a  little,  —  I 
am  happy  to  inform  him  this  evening  that  Methodism 
in  America  began  in  Maryland.  We  had  the  Wes- 
leyan  importation  direct.  The  first  preaching,  the 
first  converts,  the  first  class,  the  first  society,  the  first 
native  preachers,  both  itinerant  and  local,  the  first 
school  of  learning,  and  the  first  General  Conference. 
Why,  sir,  the  very  glory  of  our  history  would 
but  deepen  and  darken  our  shame  if  we  should  prove 
unworthy  of  it,  and  recreant  to  the  high  duties  it 
imposes  upon  us.  I  think  modern  Methodism  in 
Maryland  has  been  worthy  its  ancestor.  In  the  city 
of  Baltimore  there  are  twenty-eight  Roman  Catholic 
churches,  a  like  number  of  Presbyterian  churches,  a 


316  CENTENNIAL  OP 

like  number  of  Baptist  churches,  twenty-four  Lu- 
theran churches,  thirty-five  Protestant  Episcopal 
cluu'ches,  and  one  hundred  and  thirteen  Methodist 
churches.  In  other  words,  our  churclies  and  chapels 
number  within  nineteen  of  the  aggregate  number  of 
all  other  Protestant  churches  in  the  city.  We  have, 
perhaps,  the  first  and  second  among  the  splendid 
church  edifices  of  Methodism,  in  this  country.  As  I 
hope  to  return  to  Baltimore,  I  shall  not  venture  to 
say  which  is  first  and  which  is  second,  the  First 
Church  or  the  Mount  Vernon  Place.  But  the 
strength  of  our  Methodism  is  to  be  found  chiefly  in 
a  score  of  churches,  less  pretentious  in  architecture, 
less  conspicuous  in  position,  but  crowded  with  earn- 
est and  fervent  and  active  Christians.  What  I  tell 
you  of  the  city  is  true,  even  in  a  greater  degree,  of 
the  State  of  Maryland.  I  will  take  you  through 
whole  counties  where  there  are  hardly  any  people 
but  Methodists.  I  think  now  of  one  county  in 
which  there  is  a  little  Roman  Catholic  churcii  in 
the  county  town,  but  not  a  Presbyterian  church,  not 
a  Lutheran,  not  a  Baptist  church,  not  a  Congrega- 
tional, nor,  indeed,  a  church  of  any  denomination 
except  the  Protestant  Episcopal  and  the  Methodist 
Churches.  We  Methodists  in  Maryland  are  consid- 
ered rather  a  conservative  folk.  We  do  hold  fast  to 
the  traditions  of  the  Elders.  We  have  churches 
that,  to  a  considerable  extent,  kneel  in  prayer.  We 
believe  in  revivals,  as  I  am  persuaded  you  do  also. 
Li  matters  of  church  polity,  it  may  be  of  interest  to 
these  ministerial  brethren  for  me  to  say  that,  a  few 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  317 

years  ago,  but  eleven  of  the  two  hundred  members  of 
our  Conference  voted  for  an  elective  Presiding 
Eldership.  Last  spring  but  thirty-one  voted  for  the 
equality  of  Lay  Representation,  As  to  the  present 
pending  question,  I  think  our  people  generally  are 
very  much  in  the  mood  of  a  young  fellow  in  our  city 
not  lonor  ago.  I  was  at  a  debate  at  the  Maryland 
Club  the  other  night,  and  I  was  non-committal. 
When  I  heard  the  predictions  of  the  protectionist 
fellow,  his  speech  seemed  to  be  so  shallow  that  I  was 
disposed  to  join  the  free-traders.  But  when  I  heard 
the  free-trade  man  speak,  his  arguments  were  so 
hollow  that  it  left  my  mind  in  equilibrium.  And 
there  was  a  debate  of  Character  and  Religion,  and 
when  the  Churchman  plead  his  cause,  I  began  to  be 
in  doubt.  But,  when  the  Agnostic  spoke,  lie  was  so 
full  of  policy  that  really,  he  said,  '  I  hope  we  won't 
have  any  more  debates  in  our  Club.' 

"  Our  newspapers  have  been  full  of  debates  over 
the  pending  question  ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that,  as 
yet,  the  mind  of  the  people  is  in  equilibrium. 

"If  I  were  from  the  Soutli,  I  should  be  disposed 
to  take  issue  Avith  the  brilliant  generalization  of  the 
witty  and  imaginative  editor  of  The  Christian  Advo- 
cate, who  said  to  you  last  night  that  the  distinctive 
characteristic  of  Methodism  in  the  South  was  a  sort 
of  burning  ardor  that  holds  principles  in  a  muddy 
solution,  that  needed  to  be  precipitated  into  crystal- 
lization of  exact  statement  and  logical  inference,  by 
the  infusion  of  New  England  brains.  It  is  true,  sir, 
that  New  England  Methodism  is  fervor  plus  brains, 


318  CENTENNIAL.  OF 

but  hardly  correct  that  Southern  Methodism  is  grace 
minus  brains. 

"  I  say  I  should  be  disposed  to  dispute  that.  Mary- 
land belongs  neither  to  the  North  nor  to  the  South. 
We  are  in  the  midst  of  the  great  vital  currents  that 
flow  both  ways,  in  the  ver}^  centre  of  moral  and 
intellectual  influences  that  come  from  the  North  and 
from  the  South. 

"  I  remember,  sir,  this  evening,  that  in  the  early 
days  of  Methodism,  there  was  no  volume  so  keen 
and  critical  that  treated  of  the  great  Calvin  istic 
controversy  as  that  written  by  Asa  Shinn  on  '  The 
Atonement ; '  and,  sir,  among  all  the  past  editors  of 
The  Christian  Advocate^  there  has  perhaps  been  not 
one  more  noted  for  his  •  brilliancy,  for  his  accurac}^ 
and  for  his  profundity  than  Dr.  Thomas  E.  Bond  ; 
while  the  'Defense  of  Our  Fathers,'  by  John  Emory, 
popular  no  longer  because  he  treats  of  a  controversy 
the  fires  of  which  are  burned  out,  will  yet  remain 
forever  the  ablest  ptea  for  the  validity  of  our  minis- 
terial orders. 

"But,  sir,  I  must  be  mindful  of  the  limit  so  grace- 
fully placed  by  our  Chairman  this  evening.  I  am 
here  to  acknowledge  the  courtesies  you  have  ex- 
tended, through  me,  to  the  Methodists  of  Maryland. 
I  am  here  to  bid  you,  brethren  beloved,  a  farewell. 
I  shall  go  away  carrying  with  me  vivid  memories  of 
your  warm  welcome,  and  I  bring  to  mind  the  words 
that  John  Lee  wrote  to  his  elder  brother,  Jesse,  from 
Baltimore,  on  his  way  to  Virginia  to  die,  when  he 
said,  '  I  feel  that  I  have  left  half  of  my  heart  iu  New 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  319 

England.'  So  I  bid  you  a  good-by,  with  the  meaning 
of  the  old  Saxon  phrase,  '  God  be  with  you.'  " 

The  Chairman  said :  "  Whe;i  I  listened  to  the 
statement  of  the  Doctor  with  regard  to  the  strength 
of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Maryland,  it  seemed  to 
me  only  proper,  had  the  band  occupied  its  place,  to 
have  asked  it  to  play  '  Maryland,  my  Maryland.' 
Rev.  Dr.  Clark  has  a  series  of  Resolutions  which  he 
will  at  this  time,  if  he  pleases,  present  to  you,  as 
Chairman  of  tlie  Committee  on  Resolutions,  as  that 
Committee  did  not  report  at  the  Centennial  gather- 
ing held  in  People's  Church." 

The  following  resolutions  were  presented  by  Rev. 
Dr.  W.  R.  Clark,  and  enthusiastically  adopted :  — 

Whereas,  The  closing  of  the  first  century  of  New  England 
Methodism  is  an  event  inducing  grave  reflections  upon  the  respon- 
sibilities devolved  upon  us  by  our  marvellous  growth  and  far- 
reaching  influence,  therefore,  — 

Eesolved,  In  the  name  and  on  behalf  of  one  thousand  Christian 
ministers  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Christian  laymen, 

1.  That  in  stepping  upon  the  threshold  of  the  second  century  of 
our  history,  we  feel  admonished,  both  by  our  history  and  our 
hopes,  to  guard  sedulously  against  the  ingress  upon  us  of  a  lax 
liberalism  and  worldliness,  and  of  adhering  enthusiastically  to  our 
time-honored  landmarks  of  Christian  doctrine  and  holy  living  — 
these  being  the  primal  forces  which  have  given  us  leadership  among 
powerful  religious  bodies  working  for  the  salvation  of  men,  and 
which  have  so  conspired  to  lift  the  religious  thought  of  New 
England  into  a  clearer  atmosphere  and  a  broader  horizon. 

2.  That  we  reciprocate  the  fraternization  now  extended  to  us  by 
sister  denominations,  and  bid  them  Godspeed  in  their  noble  work. 

3.  That  all  caste  distinctions  based  upon  race,  color,  or  previous 
condition  of  servitude,  are  rebuked  alike  by  the  genius  of  Method- 
ism and  the  precepts  of  Christ. 

4.  That  the  dogma  of  the  union  of  Church  and  State,  and  all 


320  CENTENNIAL  OF 

hierarchical  interference  with  our  public  schools  or  civil  affairs,  are 
a  burlesque  upon  Christianity,  and  a  daring  effrontery,  by  a  foreign 
ecclesiastic,  which  we  as  citizens  of  this  Republic  have  endured  to 
the  very  verge  of  forbearance. 

5.  That  the  secularism  of  the  day  demanding  an  elimination  of 
all  ideas  of  God  from  the  administration  of  our  government,  is  at 
war  with  the  first  principles  of  government,  and  the  life  of  the 
Republic.  That  the  name  of  God  should  be  distinctly  recognized 
in  our  Federal  Constitution,  and  He  should  be  revered  as  the 
Ruler  of  nations. 

6.  That  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  the  sovereign  remedy  for  moral 
evils,  and  that  the  moral  questions  now  agitating  the  country  — 
notably  the  temperance  reform.  Sabbath  observance,  the  Bible  and 
moral  teachings  in  the  public  schools,  the  relative  claims  of  capital 
and  labor,  civil  service  reform,  and  the  purification  of  politics,  can 
reach  a  proper  and  permanent  solution  only  on  the  principles  enun- 
ciated by  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

7.  That  the  prevalence  of  intemperance  is  a  loathsome  affront 
and  menace  to  our  homes,  altars,  social  and  civic  life,  and  the 
liquor  traffic  is  a  burning  curse  equalled  only  by  the  absurdity  of 
assuming  to  lessen  it  by  licensing  it. 

8.  That  all  our  literary  institutions,  our  joy  and  pride,  need 
vastly  greater  benefactions  than  they  have  thus  far  received,  to  so 
broaden  their  instruction  as  to  keep  them  in  touch  with  the  rapidly 
advancing  standards  of  education. 

9.  That  we  hereby  solemnly  protest  against  the  opening  of  the 
gates  of  the  approaching  Columbian  Exposition  on  the  Sabbath,  as 
a  direct  violation  of  the  law  of  God,  and  of  the  statutes  of  Illinois, 
a  wanton  trampling  upon  the  religious  traditions,  precedents,  and 
institutions  of  the  country,  an  outrage  upon  the  most  cherished 
sentiments  of  thirteen  million  communicants  of  Christian  churches, 
and  an  authorization  of  an  organized  godlessness,  which  would 
strike  at  the  foiuidations  of  the  Republic. 

10.  That  this  banquet,  honored  by  the  presence  of  six  hundred 
representative  men  and  women  of  our  churches,  by  his  Excellency 
the  Governor  of  this  Commonwealth,  His  Honor  the  Mayor  of  this 
city,  with  other  distinguished  guests,  and  last  but  not  least,  our 
beloved  resident  Bishop,  is  as  significant  of  our  growth  and  influ- 
ence as  the  spectacle  it  presents  is  beautiful  and  charming. 

Eesolced,   That  a  copy  of  the  above  ninth  resolution  be  signed 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  321 

by  the  president  and  secretary  of  this  convention,  and  forwarded 
to  the  commissioners  of  the  Columbian  Exposition  to  be  held  in 
Chicago  in  the  year  1892-'93. 

The  Chairman  said :  "  It  was  a  Boston  girl  who 
said  that  she  would  rather  be  a  lamp-post  in  Boston 
than  the  Mayor  of  Buffalo ;  but  that  was  before  the 
Ex-President  had  been  made  Mayor  of  the  city  of 
Buffalo.  It  was  a  Boston  woman  "who  lived  with  the 
thought  that  to  be  born  in  Boston  was  bliss  enough 
for  any  ordinary  human  being.  She  found  herself 
once  just  outside  the  city  of  Boston,  and,  coming  across 
a  mile-post  marked  '1  M.  from  Boston,'  she  said, 
'How  beautiful,  how  touching!  I'm  from  Boston.' 
It  was  another  woman  from  Boston,  so  the  story 
goes,  though  I  was  not  there  and  cannot  vouch  for 
it,  who  found  herself  one  day  at  the  gates  of  Paradise. 
St.  Peter,  standing  at  the  gates,  said  to  her,  as  she 
approached, '  From  whence  did  you  come  ?  '  She  said, 
'  I  come  from  Boston.'  He  said,  '  You  can  enter,  but 
I  give  you  fair  warning,  you  will  be  disappointed.' 

"  And  Boston,  a  hundred  years  ago,  was  a  city  of 
but  eighteen  thousand  inhabitants.  It  was  but  a  small 
affair,  and  yet  mighty  in  the  power  it  exerted.  It 
has  gone  from  eighteen  thousand  to  almost  four 
hundred  thousand  population.  In  all  these  days  the 
Methodist  Church  has  been  loyal  to  every  interest 
that  has  proved  for  the  best  good  of  the  city.  To 
be  the  presiding  officer  over  any  people  may  be  to 
the  credit  of  the  one  that  presides ;  but  to  preside 
over  a  body  of  men  and  women  that  represent  the 
best  elements  of   the  community  is  a  high  honor. 


322  CENTENNIAL  OP 

This  evening  it  is  my  pleasure  to  present  to  you  one 
who  has  the  right  to  preside  over  the  Methodists  of 
Boston.  I  present  to  you  the  Mayor  of  the  City 
of  Boston. 

His  Honor,  the  Mayor,  Thomas  N.  Hart  said : 
"Although  from  another  communion,  I  will  dare  to 
say.  Brethren  and  Sisters.  Let  me  thank  you  for 
this  opportunity  to  say  briefly  what  Boston  owes  to 
Methodism.  It  is  interesting  to  remember  that 
Charles  Wesley  and  George  Whitefield  began  their 
New  England  preaching  in  Boston,  and  that  Jesse 
Lee  established  New  England  Methodism  on  Boston 
Common ;  and  the  seeds  planted  by  Wesley  and  Lee 
have  grown  beyond  all  expectation,  for,  unless  we 
are  erroneously  informed,  the  Methodists  are  now 
the  most  numerous  of  all  Protestant  denominations 
in  this  country.  You  have  occupied  the  golden 
mean  between  all  extremes.  You  have  helped  to 
soften  the  creeds  once  taught  in  the  pulpits  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. Your  good  works  have  kept  pace  with 
your  growth  in  opportunities  and  wealth.  You  have 
given  us  the  Boston  Universit}'',  one  of  the  greatest 
institutions  of  learning  in  the  world."  (At  this  utter- 
ance, one  hundred  and  thirty  members  of  the  School 
of  Theology  in  Boston  University,  sitting  in  a  body 
under  the  balcony,  arose,  and  with  college  gusto, 
cried  out  their  "Three  cheers  for  Boston  University.") 
"Its  Law  School  is  a  special  honor  to  Boston. 
Another  branch  of  tlie  same  great  University,  it 
is  safe  to  call  the  greatest  Conservatory  of  Music 
known  to  the  nineteenth  century.     In  the  name  of 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  323 

Boston,  I  tliank  you  for  the  good  you  have  done, 
and  continue  to  do,  both  here  and  throughout  our 
common  country." 

The  Chairman  said:  "May  I  ask  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Rogers  to  read  two  letters  that  are  in  his  possession, 
one  from  Dr.  Abel  Stevens,  another  from  the  private 
Secretary  of  the  late  Gen.  Fisk  ?  " 

Dr.  C.  S.  Rogers  said :  "  There  was  one  voice  to 
which  we  had  hoped  to  listen  here  this  evening. 
Early  in  the  season,  the  Committee  wrote  to  Gen. 
Fisk,  asking  him  to  be  present  and  participate  in 
these  pleasant  exercises  to-night.  ,  The  answer  to 
that  communication,  from  his  Private  Secretary,  I 
will  read  to  you.     It  is  dated  June  21,  1890." 

Dear  Sir, — Your  favor  of  June  18,  to  Gen.  Fisk,  has  been  sub- 
mitted to  him.  He  has  been  very  ill,  but  is  slowly  climbing  up. 
He  says  there  is  nothing  he  would  more  gladly  do  than  make  the 
ten-minutes'  talk  October  23.  He  has  positively  declined  to  make 
any  engagements  for  the  future;  but  he  is  coming  to  believe  this 
talk  to  be  among  the  possible  things.  He  will  now  consent,  hoping 
and  praying  that  his  health  may  be  soon  lestored  to  him.  He  bids 
me  send  his  very  kindest  wishes  and  remembrances. 
Yours  sincerely,  M.  F.  Park, 

Private  Secretary. 

"I  need  not  say  that  very  soon  after  this  Gen.  Fisk 
passed  to  his  reward,  and  his  face  is  hidden  to  earth. 

"  It  was  thought  that  any  celebration  of  this  sort 
would  not  be  complete  without  the  presence  of  tlie 
Historian  of  Methodism,  if  it  were  at  all  possible  to 
have  him  with  us.  And,  therefore,  the  Committee 
very  early  wrote  to  Dr.  Stevens,  in  his  home  in  Cali- 
fornia. I  have  here  his  brief  reply,  dated  June  9, 
1890." 


324  CENTENNIAL  OF 

CoKONADO,  Cal.,  June  9,  1890. 
Kev.  Dr.  Rogers.  Dear  Doctor, — Thanks  for  your  kind 
letter  of  3(1  inst.  Its  generous  invitation  touches  my  heart,  and, 
■were  I  a  young  man,  I  should  respond  to  it,  at  once,  affirmatively, 
and  march  again,  as  I  did  forty-five  years  ago,  into  Boston,  with 
buoyant  steps,  to  join  in  your  triumphant  jubilee.  What  hath  God 
wrought  among  you  since  that,  to  me,  ever-memorable  4th  of  July, 
1834,  when  I  opened  old  Church-street  Chapel —  my  fiist  pastoral 
charge  in  Methodism !  But  I  am  in  my  76th  year,  and  the  burden 
of  my  age,  forbids  long  or  distant  campaigns.  I  can  be  with  you 
only  in  spirit.  I  pray  God  to  crown  the  occasion  with  His  own 
"  Grace  and  Glory."  Yours  truly, 

Abel  Stevens. 

The  Chairman  said :  "  I  will  ask  Dr.  Brodbeck  to 
lead  us  iu  singing  a  single  verse  :  — 

"  Jesus,  the  name  that  charms  our  fears." 

After  the  singing,  the  Chairman  said  :  "  Methodism 
may  well  count  herself  fortunate  in  the  fact  that  she 
has  had  noble  representatives  on  the  walls  of  Zion, 
proclaiming  a  free  and  full  salvation  ;  but  she  may 
also  well  congratulate  herself  that  her  success  has 
not  been  dependent  on  her  clergy.  The  laymen  of 
the  Methodist  Church  have  done  much,  and  are 
yet  doing  much,  to  give  it  reputation  and  add  to  its 
power.  And,  upon  an  occasion  like  this,  it  is  no 
small  honor  as  a  layman  to  stand  before  you  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  Church.  But  to  be  a  layman  worthy 
of  that  position,  is  an  honor  any  man  might  well 
covet.  This  evening  there  stands,  or  will  stand, 
before  3'ou  one  who  rightly  has  a  high  place  in 
the  regard  of  New  England  Methodists.  I  desire 
to  present  to  you  my  friend  and  brother,  the  Hon. 
E.  H.  Dunn." 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  325 

The  Hon.  E.  H.  Dunn  said :  "  Mr.  Chairman.  A 
great  change  has  come  over  the  theology  of  Massa- 
chusetts during  the  last  one  hundred  years.  And 
to-night  Faneuil  Hall  throws  open  wide  its  doors, 
and  the  Governor  of  the  old  Commonwealth  comes 
and  welcomes  the  Methodists  in  this  old  '  Cradle  of 
Liberty.' 

"  A  hundred  years  ago,  when  Jesse  Lee  came  to 
deliver  his  first  sermon  in  Massachusetts,  to  the 
people  of  Boston,  no  friendly  church  opened  its 
doors  to  welcome  him.  But  I  am  glad  to-night  that 
I  am  a  native  of  the  old  Commonwealth  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  that  she  has  grown  liberal  in  her 
theology,  and  to-night  every  Christian  denomination 
to  be  found  on  the  face  of  the  globe  finds  protection 
within  her  borders. 

"Much  has  been  said  within  the  past  two  days 
about  Jesse  Lee,  and  the  few  noble  men  who  labored 
with  him  in  planting  the  seed  of  this  denomination 
in  New  England.  These  men  did  their  work  nobly 
and  well.  They  made  sacrifices  of  ease  and  comfort 
to  themselves.  All  honor  to  their  names  and  to 
their  memories.  Nothing  has  been  said  or  done 
within  the  past  few  days  from  which  we  would 
detract  a  single  word,  from  the  eulogies  pronounced 
upon  them.  But  we  should  not  forget  that  these 
men  in  their  labors  were  aided  by  godly  men  and 
godly  women  in  the  laity  of  the  Church.  We  should 
not  forget  that  the  Methodist  Church  of  New  Eng- 
land owes  much  to  its  laity  for  its  success  and  its 
prosperity,  in   its   churches  and   in   its   educational 


326  CENTENNIAL   OF 

institutions.  We  should  not  forget,  as  we  stand  and 
look  back  over  this  century,  but  we  should  remember 
to-night  the  men  and  the  women  who  labored  in 
those  early  days  to  plant  the  seed  which  has  pro- 
duced such  a  wonderful  harvest.  There  sit,  in  tliis 
gallery  at  my  right,  ten  of  the  diiect  descendants  of 
the  first  man  that  was  converted  in  Boston,  under  the 
preaching  of  Jesse  Lee.  We  should  not  forget  the 
men  whom  we  loved  to  honor  when  living,  and  whom 
we  love  to  think  of  and  honor  while  dead.  The 
names  of  the  elder  Claflin  ;  the  younger  Claflin ; 
the  name  of  Sleeper;  the  name  of  Rich; — but  it  is 
useless  for  us  to  go  tlirough  the  long  list.  I  simply 
wanted  to  remind  you  that  they  are  not  forgotten. 
It  was  my  delight,  when  a  boy  and  a  young  man,  to 
stawd  in  this  hall,  and  to  listen  to  Webster,  Everett, 
and  Sumner,  Choate  and  Garrison,  to  Phillips  and 
tlie  host  of  other  great  men,  who,  through  their 
utterances,  did  much  to  prepare  the  people  of  this 
Commonwealth,  the  people  of  tliis  country,  for 
universal  liberty,  which  came  to  the  country  a  few 
years  ago.  To  these  men  have  been  erected  mon- 
uments of  bronze,  of  marble,  and  of  granite.  It  is 
right  and  proper  that  this  should  be  so.  Inscribed 
upon  these  monuments  are  the  the  records  of  their 
utterances  in  life,  and  a  record  of  the  services  wliich 
they  rendered  to  their  country.  They  stand  as  edu- 
cators to  the  rising  generation  and  to  generations 
that  are  to  come  after  us,  as  these  inscriptions  will 
remind  them  of  the  teachings  and  liberty-loving 
utterances  of  these  men,  and  from  these  monuments 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  327 

and  these  inscriptions  the  young  men  that  follow  us 
will  gather  inspiration  for  the  centuries  in  which 
they  live. 

"  If  you  go  to  London  and  enter  St.  Paul's  cathe- 
dral, built  by  one  of  the  most  eminent  architects  of 
the  world,  you  will  find  upon  a  tablet  there,  a  plain 
simple  tablet,  the  name  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  — 
the  man  who  designed  the  magnificent  cathedral. 
If  you  ask,  as  you  look  about  this  temple,  for  the 
monument  of  this  great  man,  they  will  tell  you  to 
look  around  you,  and,  looking  around,  you  behold 
this  beautiful  temple,  and  that  stands  as  a  monument 
to  the  memory  of  the  man  who  built  it. 

"  The  men  who  first  came  to  New  England,  who 
laid  the  foundations  of  the  Methodist  institutions, 
the  clergy  and  the  laity,  have  nearly  all  of  them 
passed  away.  There  are  no  monuments  of  bronze,  of 
marble,  or  of  granite,  to  commemorate  their  names, 
or  their  deeds,  or  their  sacrifices.  Bat  if  you  ask  me 
to-night  for  a  monument  to  these  men,  I  say  to  you, 
as  they  say  in  the  cathedral  of  St.  Paul's,  when  they 
ask  for  the  monument  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  I 
say,  '  Look  around  this  Hall.'  Here  is  a  monument 
worthy  of  these  men.  Here  sit  one  hundred  and 
thirty  of  the  young  men  who  are  being  educated 
right  here  in  the  city  of  Boston,  in  sight  of  Boston 
Common,  in  sight  of  the  spot  where  Jesse  Lee  deliv- 
ered his  first  message  to  the  people  of  Boston.  These 
young  men  are  being  educated  right  in  the  heart  and 
centre  of  Boston,  and  they,  with  the  six  hundred 
others  that  have  gone  from  the  same  institution,  will 


328  CENTENNIAL   OP 

soon  go  out  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  to 
deliver  the  same  message  which  Jesse  Lee  delivered 
on  Boston  Common.  This  surely  is  a  monument  to 
their  memory,  far-reaching  and  outliving  the  monu- 
ments to  the  men  of  whom  I  have  spoken. 

"  This  temple  is  called  '  The  Cradle  of  Liberty.' 
]\Lay  we  not  call  it  to-night  'The  Cradle  of  Universal 
Liberty '  ?  And  may  we  not  unite  with  that  the 
teachings  of  the  Methodist  Church,  '  Universal  Chris- 
tianity '  ?     Let  them  be  united  one  and  forever." 

The  Chairman  said :  "  To  be  a  Bishop  of  the 
Methodist  Church  is  to  hold  a  position  of  the  high- 
est honor.  To  hold  a  position  of  such  honor  and 
usefulness  that  it  would  seem  wrong  to  remove  him 
from  that  place,  even  to  make  of  him  a  Bishop, 
indicates  that  one  holds  a  most  exalted  place  in  the 
ranks  of  Methodism.  It  is  given  to  but  few  men  to 
occupy  such  a  position  as  that.  But  we  have  one 
with  us  this  evening  to  whom,  but  for  the  fact  that 
he  exerts  a  power  greater  than  any  Bishop  of  the 
Church,  the  Church  would  long  since  have  said, 
'Occupy,  occupy  the  other  place.'  He  is  a  man  whom 
we  all  know.  He  is  a  traveller,  a  scholar,  an  histo- 
rian, possessed  of  information  upon  ten  thousand 
subjects,  and  lacking  knowledge  upon  only  one,  and 
that  is  the  age  of  Zions  Herald.  I  desire  to  present 
to  you  the  Rev.  Dr.  Buckley,  Editor  of  Tlie  Christian 
Advocate. ^^ 

Rev.  Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley  said  :  "  Mr.  President,  I 
have  been,  and  still  am,  an  attentive  reader  of  Zioii's 
Herald^  and  I  find  something  interesting  in  it  every 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  329 

week,  on  every  page.  But  the  one  mystery  of  that 
paper  is  this  :  It  stands  absolutely  alone  in  the  world, 
as  a  case  of  an  old  maid  who  tries  to  make  herself 
out  older  than  she  is. 

"  Mr.  President,  it  has  been  said  that  a  man  who 
indulo-es  in  reminiscences  is  himself  one.  But  an 
advertised  series  of  reminiscences  of  a  hundred  years, 
must  certainly  exempt  any  person  from  the  charge. 
Thirty-one  years  ago  I  heard  my  voice  in  this  hall, 
as  a  representative  of  New  Hampshire.  I  had  not 
spoken  five  minutes  before  a  deep  and  solemn  voice 
was  heard  from  yonder  gallery,  uttering  these  por- 
tentous words  'Dry  up!'  But,  Mr.  President,  I 
have  refused  to  obey  that  mandate,  from  then  till 
now. 

"  Now,  Mr.  President,  I  congratulate  the  Governor 
of  this  State  on  his  magnificent  opportunities.  I 
read  that  he  was  last  night  the  honored  guest  of  a 
fraternity  of  persons  (the  Baptists)  who,  in  the 
early  history  of  Massachusetts,  if  I  am  not  mixed 
on  the  facts,  had  some  little  embarrassment  in  these 
parts.  So  that  we  are  not  the  only  body  that  have 
experienced  a  great  change. 

"  But,  sir,  I  count  myself  particularly  honored 
to-night.  In  1881,  in  the  city  of  London,  an  GEcu- 
menical  Conference  of  Methodists  was  held.  We 
are  a  wonderfully  imitative  people.  The  Church  of 
England  held  what  they  called  '  The  Pan-Anglican 
Council.'  The  Presbyterians  held,  in  Belfast,  a 
'  Pan-Presbyterian  Council,'  and  the  Methodists  an 
'  (Ecun^enical  Conference  '  in  London  ;  and,  when  it 


330  CENTENNIAL  OP 

occurred,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  England, 
the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  was  a  Wesleyan  Method- 
ist and  Local  Preacher,  and  he  invited  a  hirge 
number  of  the  delegates,  in  fact,  the  whole  body,  to 
be  present ;  and  on  that  occasion,  in  that  ancient 
Mansion  House,  with  the  insignia  of  his  office  upon 
him,  and  with  the  devices  and  emblems  of  royalty 
about  him,  he  gave  us  an  account  of  his  experiences 
in  conversion,  and  lined  a  hymn  of  nearly  sixteen 
stanzas,  which  the  entire  concourse  sang  in  that 
building.  Next  to  tliat,  Mr.  President,  I  shall  always 
put  the  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall,  with  the  Governor 
of  Massachusetts  to  welcome  us. 

"  A  devout  Congregationalist  minister  once  called 
upon  a  Methodist,  and  said  to  him,  '  I  write  my 
sermons  with  the  utmost  care,  and  I  don't  have  any 
conversions  ;  and  3'ou  don't  prepare  yours  at  all,  I  am 
told,  and  you  appear  to  have  great  results.  Please 
explain  to  me  the  secret.  I  cannot  tell  wliy  I  have 
not  greater  success.'  —  'Well,'  said  the  Methodist 
Preacher,  '  you  said  you  write  down  every  word  you 
are  going  to  say.  And  while  you  are  writing,  the 
devil  looks  over  your  shoulder  and  sees  every  word 
you  are  writing,  and  he  goes  about  and  fortifies 
every  sinner  in  the  community ;  but,'  said  he, '  when 
I  get  up  to  preach,  I  don't  know,  and  the  devil  don't 
know,  what  I  am  going  to  say.' 

"  When  I  had  the  honor  to  deliver  five  lectures 
before  the  students  of  Andover  Theological  School, 
at  the  request  of  the  Faculty,  I  called  upon  Professor 
Park,   of   immense   activity   and    influence    even  in 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  331 

advanced  years.  He  expressed  regret  that  he  could 
not  hear  the  lectures,  but  said  he  had  always  taught 
the  students  to  preach  extemporaneously,  '  For,'  said 
he,  'I  remember  an  occasion  in  my  early  ministry 
when  tliere  was  a  minister  who  was  to  preach  and 
he  could  not  come.  Other  ministers  being  present, 
they  asked  them  to  take  his  place.  Every  one  de- 
clined. Some  because  they  had  no  manuscript ; 
some  because  of  difficulties  of  the  throat ;  and  all 
of  them  because  they  had  not  expected  to  preach. 
Looking  about  the  house,  they  saw  a  plain  Methodist 
minister,  and  went  up  and  asked  him  if  he  would 
not  preach.  He  did  so.  And,'  said  Professor  Park, 
'  he  took  this  wonderful  text  "  Then  the  wise  said 
unto  the  foolish,  give  us  of  your  oil,  for  our  lamps 
are  gone  out."  ' 

"  There  is  considerable  of  what  ma}^  be  called 
eloquent  drooling  about  Christain  unity.  A  minis- 
ter was  once  making  a  speech,  and  he  said,  '  What  is 
the  reason  we  cannot  all  unite  ?  There  are  the 
Episcopalians,  separated  from  us  by  a  liturgy,  and 
we  have  considerable  of  it.  Why  cannot  we  unite  ? 
And  there  are  the  Presbyterians,  the  difference  is  in 
the  form  of  government.  They  don't  recognize 
Bishops.  And  the  Congregationalists,  and  they  have 
declared  that  Arminianism  is  no  bar  to  installation, 
and  they  are  picking  up  our  ministers,  good,  bad, 
and  indifferent,  as  fast  as  they  can,  and  why  should 
we  not  unite  ?  And  there  are  the  Baptists,  separated 
from  us  only  by  a  stream.'  —  '  Well,'  said  a  Baptist 
brother,  '  we'll  meet  you  half  way,  brother.'     True 


332  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Christian  unity  recognizes  distinctions,  but  can  sink 
them  on  the  ground  of  a  common  faith  in  the 
eternal  truth.  When  I  see  a  Congregationalist 
church  going  up,  I  thank  God.  If  I  should  thank 
him  with  a  little  more  fervor  for  a  Methodist  church, 
would  that  imply  tiiat  I  am  a  bigot? 

"I  met  a  man  in  the  valley  of  Chamounix,  and 
said  to  him,  '  Are  you  an  Englishman,  or  an  Ameri- 
can?' He  said,  'Oh,  I'm  an  American.'  —  'So  am 
I.'  A  little  wliile  afterwards  he  asked  me  what  my 
native  State  was,  and  I  said,  'New  Jersey.'  —  'That 
is  my  native  State.'  I  felt  great  pleasure  to  discover 
he  was  an  American,  and  greater  happiness  to  know 
that  he  came  from  my  own  State.  I  said,  '  Are  you 
a  Christian  ?  '  — '  Yes,  I  am.'  We  skirmished  around 
a  little  while,  and  he  said, '  What  are  you  ?  '  —  'I  am  a 
Methodist  Episcopalian.'  —  '  So  am  I.'  I  was  glad  to 
get  down  to  the  fact  that  we  were  of  the  same 
State  and  Church. 

"  When  do  Christians  all  agree, 
And  their  distinctions  fall  ? 
When  nothing  in  themselves  they  sedf 
And  Christ  is  all  in  all." 

"  But,  as  a  certain  eloquent  preacher  once  said,  I 
must  begin  to  prepare  to  get  read}''  to  close. 

"A  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  church 
once  said  to  me,  '  Why  in  the  world  don't  you  come 
into  the  Church?'  Said  I,  'I  am  in  the  Church.' 
Said  he,  'Why  don't  you  come  in  under  the  broad 
panopoly  of  the  historic  episcopate  ?  '  — '  Why,'  said 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  333 

I,  '  if  my  father,  who  was  born  not  many  miles  from 
the  spot  where  Bishop  Mallalieu's  father  was  born  ' 
—  (By  the  way,  the  Bishop  was  over  there,  and  he 
told  them,  —  I  got  it  in  an  English  paper,  —  that  he 
had  been  around  the  world  extensively,  and  on  the 
whole  he  had  not  seen  a  finer  place  than  old  Eng- 
land. And  then  I  heard  him  here  to-night  say  that 
he  had  got  back  here,  and  had  not  seen  a  finer  place 
than  New  England.)  "  I  proved  to  this  Protestant 
Episcopal  Bishop  that  if  my  father  had  never  left 
the  Church,  I  should  never  have  had  any  hope  in 
this  world  or  the  world  to  come.  My  father  was 
converted  at  a  Methodist  altar,  and  was  stationed  at 
a  place  far  from  any  place  he  had  ever  heard  of;  and 
he  was  put  to  board  with  a  man  who  had  two 
daughters,  and,  before  the  year  was  over,  the  elder 
had  made  arrangements  to  become  a  Methodist 
preacher's  wife,  and,  to  quote  from  Artemus  Ward, 
'of  whom  I  am  which.'  I  told  that  story  to  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  who  was  my  neighbor  in  Brooklyn, 
and  he  said,  '  That  reminds  me  of  what  my  father 
said  to  me  once :  "  Henry,  I  came  very  near  marry- 
ing Nancy  Eaton  instead  of  your  mother.  Now, 
Henry,  if  I  had,  would  you  have  been  you? 

"  And  now,  my  brethren,  I  do  not  expect  to  see 
another  occasion  like  this.  I  have  made  up  my 
mind,  however,  that  the  only  way  to  enjoy  long  life 
is  to  grow  old  and  then  die  in  peace.  My  creed  is 
that  the  man  who  lives  only  in  the  past  is  a  fossil ; 
the  man  who  knows  nothing  of  the  past  is  a  fool, 
and  the  man  who  cares  nothing   for  the  past  is  a 


334  CENTENNIAL  OF 

freak.  Every  man  should  look  hopefully  forward  to 
the  future,  and  put  his  fuiulamcutal  faith,  not  in  the 
human  race,  or  the  men  of  the  age,  but  in  Him  who 
is  above  all,  in  all,  and  around  all,  by  whom  things 
consist,  and  will  continue,  according  to  the  sublime 
law  of  evolution  in  revelation,  which  has  respect  to 
the  happiness  and  holiness  of  sentient  beings,  every 
man  receiving,  according  to  what  he  hath  done, 
whether  good  or  evil.  That  is  my  creed,  briefly 
expressed." 

The  Chairman  said :  "  It  was  my  good  fortune, 
two  years  ago  last  May,  to  step  one  day  into  the 
General  Conference,  holding  its  session  in  New  York. 
As  I  entered  the  Opera  House,  and  found  a  seat,  a 
gentleman  arose  from  his  seat  and  commenced  to 
speak.  I  did  not  hear  the  name  announced.  I  said 
to  a  gentleman,  '  Who  is  that  man  speaking?'  —  'Who 
is  that  man  ?  Don't  you  know  ?  That  is  one  of  the 
brighest  men  in  the  Methodist  Church,  the  Rev.  Di-. 
Bristol.'  " 

Rev.  Dr.  F.  M.  Bristol  said:  "Mr.  Chairman, 
Christian  Brethren  :  Since  I  arrived  in  Boston,  this 
morning,  I  have  been  trying  to  find  the  Chairman  of 
this  meeting,  to  learn  what  my  subject  would  be 
here  to-night,  that  1  might  prepare  an  '  extempora- 
neous address.'  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  him 
until  this  evening,  and  he  tells  me  that  I  may  s})eak 
five  minutes  on  anything.  I  find  myself  in  the  em- 
barrassment of  the  Scotch  fiddler  who,  returning 
home  from  an  all-night  party,  was  hailed  with  the 
significant  remark ;  '  Ah,  Sandy,  it's  a  long  road  to 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  335 

Dunkeld  this  morning  ;'  and  replied,  'Ah,  ma  laird, 
it's  no  the  length,  but  the  breadth.' 

"  I  am  troubled,  not  with  the  length  of  my  time, 
but  with  the  breadth  of  my  theme.  It  is  an  honor 
to  speak  five  minutes  on  anything  in  Faneuil  Hall. 

"  I  want  to  thank  you  for  the  privilege  of  feasting 
with  you  in  celebration  of  the  fast  of  Jesse  Lee,  and 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  which  does  not  belong  to  Boston 
exclusively,  any  more  than  Plymouth  Rock  belongs 
only  to  Plymouth.  Faneuil  Hall  belongs  to  the 
nation.  As  I  stand  here,  in  the  presence  of  these 
portraits  of  illustrious  men,  I  feel  that  silence  on  my 
part  would  be  much  more  eloquent  than  anything 
I  can  say.     Here  are  Sumner,  Lincoln,  and  Webster. 

"  If  you  will  read  Charles  Sumner's  scholarly 
oration  on  the  '  True  Grandeur  of  Nations,'  Abraham 
Lincoln's  short  but  mighty  oration  on  the  field  of 
Gettysburg,  Daniel  Webster's  great  oration,  as  he 
delivered  it  there  in  the  Senate,  in  defence  of  the 
Constitution,  you  will  have  the  gospel  of  American 
patriotism  and  American  politics.  Methodists  have 
a  right  in  this  '  Cradle  of  Liberty,'  which  has  been 
kept  rocking  up  to  this  present  time.  But  for  the 
loyalty,  patriotism,  and  devotion  of  New  England 
Methodism,  and  the  Methodism  of  this  whole  north- 
land,  I  question  whether  we  should  have  any  liberties 
to-night  to  talk  about.  So  that  the  Methodists  have 
a  right  in  this  notable  and  historic  structure.  When 
the  Chairman  said  I  could  speak  about  anything,  I 
thought  of  the  greatest  things  in  existence.  Boston 
is  one  of  them.     Boston  remains,  and  in  all  Ameri- 


336  CENTENNIAL  OF 

can  history  will  remain,  the  greatest  American  city. 
Not  greatest  in  acres,  and  in  the  height  of  its 
temples,  but  greater  in  a  higher  and  more  lasting 
sense. 

"•  On  all  important  questions,  social,  political,  and 
religious,  the  eyes  of  this  country,  even  to  the 
Golden  Gate,  are  fixed  upon  this  glorious  city  of 
Boston. 

"  Shall  I  speak  of  Chicago,  which  is  perhaps  the 
next  greatest  thing,  stretching  from  Lake  Michigan 
to  sundown,  extending  her  borders  to  accommodate 
the  World's  Fair  ;  —  Chicago,  which  somebody  here 
said  was  known  by  many  eastern  people  only  as  the 
place  where  they  hung  some  Anarchists?     But  don't 
let  it  escape  your  minds  that  they  hung  the  Anarch- 
ists, and  ended  Anarchy  there.     They  did  it  in  the 
spirit   that  came  from  New  England.     We  look  to 
Boston,  especially  at  this   time,  because  you  have 
fought  one  of  the  great  battles  that  is  upon  us  in  the 
city  of  Chicago,  and  in  the  whole  West.     The  ques- 
tion that  is  of  deepest  interest  at  the  present  time  is 
whether  the  Tiber  is  larger  than  the  Mississippi,  and 
whether  we  shall  have  the  Common  School  preserved, 
which  was  handed  across  to  us  by  this  glorious  New 
England.     The  conflict   here   in   this  city  has  been 
ended.     The  conflict  is  coming  to  us  in  the  city  of 
Chicago.     We  have  been  encouraged  by  your  loyalty 
and  devotion,  and  we  are  learning,  with  you,  that 
the  safety  of  our  American  institutions  depends  as 
much    upon    having    the  right  kind  of    man  in  the 
office  of   Mayor   as  upon  having  the  right  kind  of 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  337 

man  in  the  Presidential  chair.  These  cities  are  the 
centres  of  power  in  the  country.  The  power  that 
controls  the  city  controls  the  country ;  and,  if  Chris- 
tianit}^  would  hold  this  country  for  liberty  and  for 
God,  it  must  do  it  by  evangelistic  work  in  the  city. 
As  the  crowds  come  over  from  foreign  lands,  and 
pour  into  our  great  Chicago,  we  plant  Sunday 
schools  and  missions  in  their  midst,  and  evangelize 
them,  putting  from  fifteen  thousand  to  twenty  thou- 
sand dollars  into  this  city  mission  work  annually,  and 
callino-  into  the  field  students  from  Garrett  Biblical 
Institute,  who  are  able  to  study  through  the  week, 
and  preach  the  gospel  on  the  Sabbath. 

"Methodism  is  one.  And  though,  as  I  said  this 
afternoon,  we  speak  of  a  New  England  Methodism, 
a  Western  Methodism,  a  Southern  Methodism,  yet  in 
a  greater  and  profounder  sense  our  Methodism  is 
one.  You  look  like  the  Methodists  of  Chicago ;  a 
little  better  perhaps.  And  I  can  assure  you,  after  a 
ministry  of  thirteen  years  in  the  city  of  Chicago, 
that  I  can  tell  a  New  England  boy  when  he  comes 
there.  There  is  the  stamp  of  New  England  upon 
him ;  the  New  England  decency ;  the  New  England 
chastity  of  speech ;  the  New  England  mildness  of 
manners ;  the  New  England  love  of  home  ;  the  New 
England  devotion  to  New  England ;  and  that  New 
England  purpose  for  righteousness  which  he  brought 
from  the  home  of  his  mother  in  Massachusetts,  or 
Connecticut,  or  Vermont.  And  wherever  I  meet  a 
New  England  boy,  I  meet  a  clean  boy.  He  is  the 
safest  acquisition  we  can  have  to  our  Church  and 


338  CENTENNIAL  OP 

society  in  the  West.  Methodism  is  one,  because  the 
blood  of  the  West  has  flowed  from  these  Eastern 
veins.  Many  of  your  children  are  with  us,  and  they 
are  there  to  represent  the  spirit  of  their  fathers,  and 
are  doing  it  grandly.  My  grandsires  rest  here  in 
Connecticut,  and  every  man  in  the  West,  of  Ameri- 
can extraction,  loves  to  claim  kinship  with  the  noble 
dust  that  sleeps  along  these  shores.  We  all  belong 
to  one  Americanism  and  one  Methodism,  and  there 
is  not,  in  the  best  sense,  a  Western  Methodism,  and 
an  Eastern  Methodism,  and  a  Southern  Methodism, 
but  one  united  homogeneous  Methodism,  filling  the 
land. 

"I  heard  the  actor  Florence  once,  on  shipboard, 
out  at  sea,  recite  an  amusing  experience.  It  was, 
doubtless,  but  a  recitation  found  in  humorous  litera-. 
ture.  An  Irish  guide  invited  the  traveller  to  visit  a 
museum  where  might  be  seen  the  skulls  of  many 
great  men.  With  enthusiasm  tlie  guide  held  up  a 
skull  which  he  assured  the  traveller  was  the  skull  of 
a  famous  Irish  chief  of  the  early  days.  '  And  tliis  is 
the  foine  skull  of  the  great  Irish  poet,  Shakspeare, 
who  wrote  Hamlet,  Othello,  and  Julius  Csesar.  And 
this  noble  skull  is  the  skull  of  that  other  great  Irish 
poet,  by  the  name  of  Robert  Burns.'  Thus  skull 
after  skull  was  exhibited  until,  at  the  end  of  the 
table,  the  guide  took  up  a  small  and  shapely  skull 
crying,  'And  here,  sor,  is  the  skull  of  Shakspeare 
who  wrote  Hamlet,  and'  —  'But  hold,' cried  the 
traveller,  'you  told  me  that  large,  fine  skull  at  the 
top  of  the  table  was  Shakspeare's.'  — '  True  for  you,' 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  339 

said  the  guide,  'and  so  it  is.  That  was  Shak- 
speare's  skull  when  he  was  a  man,  and  this  was 
Shakspeare's  skull  when  he  was  a  boy.' 

"  No  more  absurd  was  the  Irish  guide  than  is  he 
who  attempts  to  find  essential  differences  in  the 
Americanism  or  the  Methodism  of  the  East  and  the 
West,  the  North  and  the  South.  Our  great  Method- 
ism has  but  one  skull,  one  brain,  one  heart,  one  body, 
one  source  of  life  and  power,  and  it  is  taking  this 
country  for  the  evangelical  Christianity  of  one  'Lord, 
one  faith,  one  baptism,' 

"Permit  me  to  thank  you,  as  a  Methodist  preacher 
from  the  West,  for  the  kindness  witli  which  you 
have  received  me.  Yet  I  know  your  courtesy  is  not 
only  extended  to  me  personally,  but  also  to  the  city 
of  Chicago.  We  shall  expect  you  to  visit  Chicago 
in  1893.  Our  homes  will  all  be  open  to  you  during 
the  World's  Fair,  and  all  our  friends,  cousins,  aunts, 
and  relations  from  the  East  will  be  heartily  wel- 
comed. 

"  In  closing,  let  me  say,  we  want  that  Resolution 
which  was  just  read  by  your  Committee,  relating  to 
the  opening  of  the  Fair  on  Sunday,  to  ring  across 
this  continent.  There  is  very  little  doubt  in  the 
minds  of  our  Chicago  people  that  this  World's  Fair 
will  be  kept  open  on  Sunday.  I  know  this.  And 
the  fimdamental  idea  with  the  managers  is  to  keep 
it  open  for  '  Revenue  only,  '  fearing  that  it  cannot 
be  made  a  financial  success  unless  open  on  Sunday. 
Let  the  ministers  of  New  England  and  New  York,  and 
Maryland  and  California,  send  in  appeal  after  appeal, 


340  CENTENNIAL  OF 

by  their  Resolutions,  to  the  managers,  against  the 
opening  of  the  Fair  on  Sunday,  and  the  pulpit  of 
Chicago  will  thunder  all  around  against  this  pro- 
posed desecration  of  the  holy  day.  We  will  do  all 
we  can  to  help  you  fight  the  battle  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  our  Christian  Sabbath." 

The  Chairman  said :  "  That  is  a  breath  from  the 
western  prairie.  Let  it  sweep.  And  the  east  wind 
of  Boston,  coming  in  contact  with  the  western  prairie, 
will  give  new  power  and  bring  us  new  life. 

"  This  evening  you  have  listened  to  one  from  the 
West.  In  one  of  the  most  important  New  England 
pulpits  there  is  a  man  who  came  from  the  West,  a 
grand  type  of  what  may  be  called  Western  Meth- 
odism here  in  the  Modern  Athens  of  America.  I 
have  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  you  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Brodbeck." 

Dr.  W.  N.  Brodbeck  said:  "Mr.  President; 
Mothers  and  Sisters ;  Fathers  and  Brethren  :  Some 
time  ago  a  minister,  or  speaker  of  a  certain  class, 
was  holding  forth  before  an  immense  audience,  and 
announcing  some  dangers  which  threaten  us  in  our 
religious  and  political  life.  And  among  other  things 
he  announced  that  'Anti-Christ  will  come.'  An 
Irishman  out  in  the  audience  said,  'Faith,  Mister, 
he  has  come  ;  and  they  just  hung  four  of  them  in 
Chicago.' 

"  Chicago  is  a  wonderful  jjlace.  But,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, I  feel  a  good  deal  of  hesitancy  in  standing  here 
at  all  to-night,  as  I  remember  that  there  are  many 
brethren   who,  because   of  long   residence   in   New 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  341 

England,  and  long  service  in  the  Methodist  ministry, 
are  more  worthy  to  occupy  the  place  than  myself. 
And  I  have  wondered  somewhat,  since  receiving  the 
invitation  to  speak,  upon  just  what  ground  it  was 
given.  And  I  have  concluded  that  perhaps  the  Com- 
mittee had  three  reasons  for  selecting  me,  and  invit- 
ing me  to  be  one  of  the  speakers  on  this  memorable, 
occasion. 

"  First,  I  have  imagined  that  they  did  so  because 
they  desired  some  one  to  speak  during  this  Centen- 
nial who  had  come  here  during  this  present  century. 
Among  the  many  venerable  brethren  who  have 
spoken  with  such  positiveness  about  the  things  with 
which  they  were  so  familiar,  which  happened  a  hun- 
dred years  ago,  and  which  they  were  able  to  talk 
about  from  observation,  it  is  certainly  fitting  that 
one  should  speak  to  whom  these  things  are  a  matter 
of  history. 

"Another  reason,  I  think,  for  my  selection,  was 
that  they  desired  some  one  to  speak  about  New  Eng- 
land who  could  do  so  calmly  and  judiciousl}^  with- 
out the  peculiar  mental  intoxication  which  comes 
from  having  been  born  in  Boston.  That  there  is 
such  a  condition  of  mind  which  threatens  one  born 
in  or  near  Boston,  I  think  you  have  had  sufficient 
evidence  in  the  speech  of  our  honored  Bishop  Malla- 
lieu,  in  the  early  part  of  the  evening.  I  don't  mean 
by  this  that  a  native  Bostonian  cannot  confine  him- 
self to  truth  and  facts  when  speaking  of  Boston,  but 
that  his  imagination  becomes  very  elastic  and  very 
susceptible. 


342  CENTENNIAL   OF 

"The  Chairman  of  the  evening  has  told  every 
stoiy  about  the  women  of  Boston  that  I  ever  heard, 
but  one,  and  I  may  tell  you  that.  There  is  a  good 
woman  whose  husband  died,  and  she  desired  to  pro- 
cure for  him  a  beautiful  and  suitable  monument. 
She  selected  it,  and  then  she  wanted  a  suitable 
inscription  put  upon  it,  that  would  embody  her 
thought  with  regard  to  him  and  his  present  condi- 
tion. And  after  many  had  been  suggested  to  her, 
the  man  finally  gravely  suggested,  '  How  would  this 
do,  "  Gone  to  a  better  country  ? '"  ^ '  Ah,'  sighed  she, 
'but  you  forget  that  my  husband  lived  in  Boston.' 

"The  other  reason  I  think,  perhaps,  why  I  was 
invited,  was  that  you  might  have  the  example  of  the 
beneficent  effects  of  New  England  upon  a  transfer. 
Now,  it  is  always  dangerous  to  transfer  anything 
from  a  mild  to  a  rigorous  climate.  I  remember, 
when  I  was  starting  to  come  to  Boston,  that  I  had  a 
favorite  horse,  and  I  was  anxious  to  bring  that  part 
of  my  household ;  but,  upon  writing  to  a  friend,  he 
warned  me  against  attempting  it,  because  the  change 
was  very  hard  on  horses,  and  they  usually  died,  and 
some  of  my  brethren  in  my  church  reminded  me  that 
such  also  was  the  fate  that  would  befall  me.  But  I 
think  you  can  see  that,  although  I  have  been  here 
four  years  and  a  half,  I  still  live  and  move  and  have 
my  being. 

"  Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  do  not  know  of  anything 
that  I  could  better  do  in  the  few  moments  that  I 
may  occupy  than  to  name  a  few  things  in  connection 
with  New  England  Methodism,  which  I  have  found 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  343 

to  be  very  different  from  the  Methodism  with  which 
I  had  been  familiar  all  my  days,  until  the  time  I 
came  to  New  England. 

"And  the  first  thing  was  your  pew  system.  Dr. 
Buckley  referred  to  that  last  night.  During  my 
Christian  life  I  have  come  in  contact  with  it  but 
very  little.  I  was  reared  under  the  influence  of  Ger- 
man Methodism,  and,  of  course,  we  knew  nothing  of 
the  kind.  And  although  I  was  pastor  for  fourteen 
years,  in  the  city  from  which  I  came,  I  never  in  all 
that  time  was  pastor  of  a  church  where  the  pews 
were  either  sold  or  rented,  and  I  think  there  are  but 
two  churches  there  where  this  is  the  condition. 

"You  remember  that  it  has  not  been  so  many 
years  ago  since,  in  the  West,  families  did  not  sit 
together.  I  think  it  was  in  the  General  Conference 
of  1852,  in  our  own  city  of  Boston,  that  John  Inskip 
was  arraigned  because,  in  a  church  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  he  had  broken  over  the  accustomed  rule,  and 
allowed  men  and  women  to  sit  together.  In  Cincin- 
nati there  was  a  church  called  Union  Chapel,  which 
went  off  and  set  up  by  themselves  because  families 
were  not  allowed  to  sit  together,  and  had  a  sort  of 
independent  existence  until  all  came  to  their  position. 

"Another  thing  is  your  monthly  Communion,  and 
your  monthly  reception  of  members.  In  certain 
sections  of  the  West,  with  which  I  am  familiar,  this 
does  not  pertain.  The  Communion  Service  occurs 
once  in  three  months,  and  there  we  '  open  the  doors 
of  the  Church '  at  every  service.  Sabbath  mornings 
and  evenings  the  '  doors  of  the  Church  '  are  opened. 


344  CENTENNIAL  OF 

SO  that,  if  any  one  wishes  to  come  in,  he  may  come 
in.  Many  of  you  know  the  story  told  of  one  of  your 
ministers,  who  supplied  the  largest  church  in  Cincin- 
nati, Morris  Chapel.  He  was  from  New  Hampshire. 
The  first  Sabbath  he  was  there  the  Presiding  Elder 
was  present  at  the  service  ;  and  just  before  the  new 
pastor  arose,  the  Presiding  Elder  leaned  over  and 
said,  '  I  think  it  would  be  a  good  thing  to  open  the 
doors.'  — '  Well,  if  you  are  too  warm,  just  have  them 
opened.  I  am  perfectly  comfortable.'  It  was  a 
phrase  he  had  never  heard. 

"  Another  thing  that  impressed  me  as  different  in 
New  England,  is  the  expectancy,  on  the  part  of  the 
ministry,  of  immediate  fruit.  In  the  West,  I  think, 
as  the  brother  expressed  it  the  other  day,  many  of 
the  Churches  seem  to  expect  to  do  all  their  work  in 
a  month  or  two  of  the  winter ;  but  during  the 
remainder  of  the  year  it  is  a  very  unusual  thing  to 
hear  the  invitation  given  to  seeking.souls  to  come  to 
the  altar  and  seek  Christ.  I  found  it  different  here, 
and  thank  God  for  it.  I  believe  there  is'  no  section 
in  Methodism  where  the  ministers  look  for  the  imme- 
diate fruit  of  their  labors  as  they  do  in  New  England. 
The  seed  is  sown,  the  invitation  is  given,  and  the 
sheaves  gathered  at  once  into  the  granary.  It  is  a 
good  thing. 

"  Another  thing  that  impressed  me  very  much  was 
the  fidelity  of  the  members  of  the  Church  to  their 
own  individual  church.  I  think  that  pertains  in 
New  England  as  in  no  other  section  of  the  country 
I  have  known. 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  345 

"  Another  thing  is  the  fidelity  of  young  converts ; 
and  I  say  to  you  now  that  it  is  to  the  western  man 
a  very  gratifying  fact,  in  connection  with  your  New 
EngLand.  It  seems  to  me  that,  when  a  native  New 
Englander  is  really  convinced  of  sin  and  converted, 
the  element  of  stability  which  appears  in  the  New 
England  character  in  every  direction,  manifests  itself 
in  his  adherence  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  his 
fidelity  to  the  Church  of  God  ;  and  it  is  grand,  and 
it  brinsfs  orreat  comfort  to  the  heart  of  a  minister. 

"  But  I  remember  that  another  brother  is  to  speak. 
I  simply  want  to  say  these  things  to  you,  brethren, 
as  coming  from  one  who  comes  from  abroad.  I  want 
to  congratulate  New  England  Methodism  upon  its 
achievements  in  the  past,  and  its  prosperity  in  the 
present.  If  there  is  any  one  reason  why  I  should  have 
a  right  to  stand  here  to-night  in  this  place  it  is  that, 
while  I  am  only  an  adopted  child  of  New  England, 
and  that  only  of  a  few  years'  duration,  I  defer  to  no 
native  son  of  this  goodly  section  in  my  admiration 
or  my  love  for,  or  my  loyalty  to,  New  England  and 
her  Methodism.  I  want  to  say  to  you  to-day,  I 
believe  that  in  New  England  we  find  the  best  type 
of  Methodism  to  be  found  anywhere  in  our  land,  and 
so  far  as  I  know,  in  any  land  under  the  shining 
sun." 

The  Chairman  said :  "  It  is  but  proper  that  the 
last  speech  of  the  evening  should  represent  the 
Mission  Element  in  the  Methodist  Church.  In  all 
this  hundred  years  the  Church  has  been  stretching 
out  her  hands,  not  only  to  men  of  the  land,  but  to 


346  CENTENNIAL   OF 

men  of  the  sea.  I  have  the  honor  to  present  to  you 
the  last  speaker,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bates." 

Dr.  L.  B.  Bates  said  :  "  Mr.  Chairman,  Parents 
and  Children ;  a  mistake  has  been  made  somewhere, 
by  someone.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  sailors,  Jesse 
Lee  would  never  have  come  to  Boston,  because  his 
ancestors  would  never  have  crossed  the  Atlantic. 
Had  it  not  been  for  the  sailors,  Boston  would  have 
been  an  Indian  village  to-night.  The  wigwam  would 
have  been  on  Beacon  Street  and  Columbus  Avenue. 

"  For  three  nights  and  two  days  we  have  been 
celebrating,  and  I  think,  Mr.  Chairman,  that,  in  the 
introduction  of  the  last  speaker,  the  sailor  has  been 
referred  to ;  but  it  is  the  only  time.  The  sailor  was 
the  only  speaker  on  Boston  Common,  when  Jesse 
Lee  preached  that  memorable  sermon  on  the  11th 
of  July,  1780,  whose  speech  has  come  down  to  us. 
And  for  the  first  time  now,  during  this  Convention, 
your  attention  is  called  to  his  speech.  Jesse  Lee 
said,  in  illustrating  his  sermon,  that  those  who  at- 
tempted to  gain  heaven  by  works  were  like  men  row- 
ing a  boat  with  one  oar  ;  and  those  who  attempted  to 
gain  heaven  by  faith  were  like  men  rowing  a  boat 
with  one  oar.  A  sailor  shouted  in  the  congregation, 
says  a  Boston  paper,  '  Why  don't  he  scull  ?  '  What 
Mr.  Lee's  reply  was  we  do  not  know ;  but,  knowing 
the  man,  it  must  have  been  pointed,  for,  a  little 
time  after,  on  his  way  from  Boston  to  Lynn  over  the 
old  Maiden  turnpike,  before  there  were  any  bridges 
this  side  of  Maiden,  two  lawyers  rode  up,  one  upon 
either  side  of  him.     Supposing  he  might  be  an  itiu- 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  347 

erant  preacher,  they  said,  'Are  you  a  Methodist 
Preacher  ? ' — '  Yes.' — '  Do  you  preach  without  notes  ? ' 

—  '  Yes.'  — '  Don't  you  sometimes  make  mistakes  ? ' 

—  '  Yes.'  —  '  What  do  you  do  when  you  make  mis- 
takes?'—  'Well,  gentlemen,  if  they  are  worthy  to 
be  corrected,  I  correct  them.  If  not,  I  let  it  pass. 
For  instance,  I  was  preaching  the  other  day,  and  I 
wanted  to  quote  this  text,  "  All  liars  shall  have  their 
part  in  the  lake  which  burneth  with  fire  and  brim- 
stone ; "  but,  instead  of  liars,  I  said  lawyers.  I  did  not 
correct  it.'  One  of  the  men  said,  'Are  you  a  knave, 
or  a  fool?'  —  'I  am  between  the  two.'  They  rode 
on,  and  the  Methodist  preacher  had  the  ground. 

"  On  that  memorable  occasion  on  Boston  Common, 
when  he  had  finished,  he  said,  '  I  am  a  stranger.  I 
have  given  you  the  gospel  as  it  has  been  given  to 
me.  If  any  of  this  company  will  come  forward  and 
take  my  hand,  and  by  so  doing,  pledge  himself  to 
meet  me  in  heaven,  I  will  thank  God.' 

"  When  Brother  Bidwell  was  the  pastor  of  Old 
Bromfield-street  Churjch,  twenty  years  ago,  an  old 
lady,  over  ninety  years  of  age,  who  was  dying,  sent 
for  him,  and  said  to  him,  'I  was  there  and  heard 
Jesse  Lee.  I  looked  upon  the  crowd,  one  by  one,  as 
they  went  away  and  left  the  stranger  standing 
there.  Though  a  little  girl,  I  went  up  to  him,  and 
took  him  b}^  the  hand,  and  said  "  Mr.  Lee,  I  will 
meet  you  in  heaven."  '  She  died  in  the  faith,  and  the 
little  girl  who  gave  her  hand  to  Jesse  Lee,  on  Boston 
Common,  on  the  11th  of  July,  1790,  shakes  hands 
with  him,  doubtless,  now  around  the  throne  above. 


348  CENTENNIAL  OF 

"  Brothers  and  sisters  ;  If  we  project  Methodism, 
if  our  sons,  and  if  our  sons'  sons  shall  project 
Methodism  for  a  hundred  years  to  come,  throughout 
this  land,  and  all  other  lands,  we  shall  not  do  it  by 
our  might ;  we  shall  not  do  it  by  our  money  ;  we 
shall  not  do  it  by  our  social  standing  ;  we  shall  do 
it  by  our  consecration  to  God.  If  Methodism  throws 
herself  out  for  a  hundred  years  to  come,  over  this 
and  over  all  other  lands,  she  will  do  it  by  her  consecra- 
tion to  God.  Oh,  when  that  grand  hour  shall  come,  sir, 
when  the  gospel  shall  prevail  from  north  to  south, 
from  east  to  west,  and  in  all  lands,  may  they  rejoice 
in  the  faith  that  saves  us  to-day,  and  which  gives  us 
the  hope  of  a  glorious  immortality  at  the  right  hand 
of  God." 

The  Chairman  said:  "I  think  you  will  all  ac- 
knowledge the  fact  that  the  automatic  brakes  have 
worked  very  well.  There  has  been  but  little  work 
except  to  guide.  I  ask  you  to  remember  that  this 
occasion  should  be  to  us  only  an  inspiration  for 
greater  work  and  influence,  to  make  of  us  stronger 
Methodists  and  stronger  Christians.  As  we  close,  I 
will  ask  Dr.  Brodbeck  to  lead  us  in  singing  a  single 

verse, — 

"  A  charge  to  keep  I  have, 

and  then  I  will  ask  the  Bishop  to  pronounce  the 
Benediction,  thus  closing  our  Centennial  Gathering." 
After  singing  heartily  the  above  stanza,  Bishop 
W.  F.  INIalhilieu  pronounced  the  benediction,  and  the 
CTreat  Centennial  Celebration  came  to  a  close. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

PROGRESS    OF    THOUGHT    IN    THE     METHODIST     EPIS- 
COPAL  CHURCH,   DURING   ITS   FIRST  CENTURY. 

Br  EEV.    GEORGE  M.  STEELE,    D.D.,    PRINCIPAL   WESLEYAN   ACADEMY, 
WILBRAHAM,  MASS. 

Two  characteristics  of  Methodism  have  been  promi- 
nent in  all  its  history.  One  of  these  is  that  meta- 
physical, speculative  theology  has  been  kept  entirely 
subordinate  to  practical  and  spiritual  religion.  The 
other  is  that  common  sense  rather  than  scholastic 
logic  has  been  the  test  of  its  doctrines.  Of  course, 
religion  in  any  form  implies  some  kind  of  theology. 
In  the  order  of  thought  this  may  be  a  condition 
precedent  and  thus,  in  a  certain  sense,  paramount ;  but 
in  practice  it  is  the  reverse. 

A  hundred  years  ago  a  man  might  become  a  Method- 
ist by  evincing  "  a  desire  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to 
come,  and  to  save  his  soul,"  and  by  conduct  which 
accorded  with  this  desire.  Simple  as  this  condition 
is,  it  implies  a  somewhat  positive,  substantial  creed. 
If  there  were  ivrath  of  so  terrible  a  nature  there  must 
be  some  being  as  the  corresponding  subject  of  it; 
and  hence  a  doctrine  concerning  God.  "Wrath 
jto  come,"  taken  in  connection  with  the  saving  of  the 
soul,  would  indicate  another  world,  the  existence  of 
the  soul,  its  immortality,  the  retribution  due   to   sin, 

[351] 


362  CENTENNIAL   OF 

a  doctrine,  therefore,  concerning  sin  and  a  possibility 
of  salvation,  hence  some  notion  of  redemption  and 
eternal  blessedness. 

But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Wesley  and  his  coadjutors 
started  out  with  the  generally  accepted  doctrines  of 
the  Church  of  England.  Not  that  they  laid  any 
very  great  stress  upon  them  as  constituting  a  theo- 
logical system,  or  made  tliem,  as  such,  of  much 
prominence  in  their  preaching.  They  were  tacitly 
assumed.  Pre-eminent  among  tliese  assumptions 
were  the  great  practical  doctrines  that  men  were 
sinners,  and  that,  because  of  tliis,  they  were  exposed 
to  the  wrath  of  God,  and  were  liable  to  eternal  and 
inconceivable  wretchedness ;  but  that  a  way  had 
been  provided,  through  the  infinite  love  and  infinite 
wisdom  of  God,  for  their  deliverance,  and  that, 
on  their  part,  repentance  and  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  was 
the  one  and  only  method  of  securing  this. 

Of  course,  a  multitude  of  minor  facts,  opinions,  and 
doctrines  were  implied,  and,  as  time  went  on  and 
the  work  advanced,  they  came  more  and  more  to  the 
front,  and  demanded  definition  and  limitation. 
Among  the  first  of  tliese  was  the  so-called  Calvin- 
istic  theory,  concerning  predestination,  election,  and 
reprobation.  This  was  early  settled  by  the  Wesleys 
and  those  in  theological  sympathy  with  them,  by 
adopting  the  Arminian  theory  of  universal  redemp- 
tion and  human  free  agency.  There  were  other 
doctrines  pertaining  to  regeneration  andsanctification, 
the  witness  of  the  spirit,  and  some  cognate  notions, 
which  were  both  made   more   prominent  and   more 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  353 

thoroughly  defined  than  before,  in  the  English 
Church.  The  doctrine  of  baptismal  regeneration, 
which  has  been  inherited  by  this  Church  from  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  was  theoretically  adhered  to 
by  Wesley  in  all  the  early  part  of  his  ministry, 
though  practically  always  becoming  of  less  and  less 
account  with  him.  Still  it  remained  virtually  in  the 
Wesleyan  ritual,  and  traces  of  it  have  existed  even 
in  our  own  Book  of  Discipline  within  the  easy  memory 
of  some  of  us. 

The  following  may  be  i-egarded  as  a  substantial 
summary  of  the  salient  doctrines  held  by  British 
Weslej^ans,  at  the  time  of  the  organization  of 
the  American  Methodist  Episcopal  Church :  — 

The  Bible  was  regarded  as  an  authoritative  revel- 
lation  from  God  to  man,  and  whatever  it  said  was  to 
be  taken  as  the  word  of  God. 

The  human  race  was  believed  to  be  in  a  condition 
of  great  moral  disorder,  with  powerful  tendencies  to 
all  manner  of  evil,  with  moral  taste  so  perverted 
that  what  was  good  was  repulsive  to  it.  Men  were 
thought  to  naturally  hate  God,  to  have  such  a 
disposition  to  go  wrong  that  nothing  in  their  own 
constitution  was  able  to  overcome  it.  Because  of 
their  relation  to  Adam,  inheriting  from  him  not  only 
his  depravity  but  also  his  guilt,  all  who  were  born 
were  held  to  be  deserving  of  eternal  punishment. 

To  remedy  their  infinitely  bad  condition,  it  was 
held  that  Jesus  Christ  took  upon  him  the  penalty 
due  to  the  race,  and  suffered  to  an  extent  which  satis- 
fied  the   divine   justice    in   the   same   sense    that   it 


854  CENTENNLiL   OF 

would  have  been  satisfied  with  the  eternal  punishment 
of  all  the  individuals  of  the  sinful  race.  In  order 
that  he  might  be  qualified  for  this  under- 
taking, it  was  necessary  that  he  should  be  a  being 
of  infinite  attributes,  and,  therefore,  divine,  and  thus 
equally  with  the  Father  worthy  of  homage  and 
worship  from  all  intelligent  creatures.  There  was 
also  accepted  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who, 
together  with  the  Father  and  the  Son,  constituted 
a  divine  Trinity  of  persons,  but  one  God. 

It  was  also  believed  that  every  one  who  penitently 
trusted  himself  to  Christ  received  the  forgiveness  of 
sins  past,  that  he  was  justified  ;  and  that,  in  addition 
to  this,  a  marked  change  was  wrought  in  his  dispo- 
sition and  affections,  and  moral  and  spiritual  tastes, 
so  that  he  became,  in  respect  of  what  he  loved  and 
what  he  hated,  a  new  creature.  This  disposition  was 
regarded  as  capable  of  increase  and  development, 
into  perfect  conformity  to  the  will  and  mind  of 
God. 

Their  life  was  believed  to  be  a  probationary  state, 
and  whatever  could  be  done  for  the  moral  restoration 
of  any  individual  must  be  done  here.  Their  proba- 
tion ended,  there  was  no  further  hope.  A  man  dying 
impenitent,  unbelieving,  and  un forgiven,  was  doomed 
to  eternal  punishment  in  a  lake  of  fire  and  brimstone; 
but  a  genuine  believer  in  Christ  would  be  received 
into  everlasting  habitations  of  infinite  joy  and  blessed- 
ness. 

I  have  given,  in  a  brief,  and,  no  doubt,  imperfect 
manner,  the  main  features  of  the  Wesleyan  theology 


l<rEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  355 

of  one  hundred  years  ago.  On  some  of  the  points 
the  coloring  is  perhaps  softer  than  strict  historic 
statement  woukl  require,  but  I  believe  there  is  no 
exaggeration. 

Of  this  system  it  may  be  said  that  the  great  prac- 
tical elements  remain  to-day  as  they  were  when  our 
Church  was  organized,  and,  indeed,  as  they  have  been 
from  the  time  of  the  Apostles.  The  philosopliical  or 
speculative  features  have  undergone  some  changes. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  indicate  all  the  varia- 
tions, or  to  group  in  any  profitable  form,  the  move- 
ments of  thought  on  all  the  subjects  embraced  in  the 
above  summary.  We  are  to  remember  that  not  all 
change  of  opinion  is  improvement,  and  that  there  may 
be  movement  without  progress.  We  are  also  to  note 
the  fact  that  a  change  in  the  views  of  a  few,  or  even 
of  a  considerable  number,  is  hardly  entitled  to  be 
regarded  as  affecting  the  general  attitude  of  the 
Church.  It  is  only  desirable,  on  the  present  occasion, 
to  indicate  such  changes  as  have  made  marked  modifi- 
cations in  the  general  expression  of  the  denomination. 

Perhaps  the  most  obvious  changes  have  taken  place, 
so  far  as  American  Methodism  is  concerned,  in  the 
doctrine  of  the  natural  moral  condition  of  men.  As 
we  have  seen,  the  views  entertained  by  Wesley  and 
the  early  British  Methodists  were  substantially 
Augustinian,  and  differed  in  scarcely  any  respect 
from  those  of  the  Calvinists.  Man  was  regarded  as 
totally  depraved  in  the  most  radical  sense,  his  dis- 
position thoroughly  perverse  and  devilish.  And  it 
was  believed  that  he  inherited  not  only  this  bad  con- 


356  CENTENNIAL  OP 

dition  from  his  original  ancestors,  but  also  their  sin 
and  guilt ;  consequently  that  all  children  are  born  into 
this  world  deserving  of  punishment. 

Without  any  very  obvious  agitation  on  the  ques- 
tion, nevertheless,  in  process  of  time,  a  marked 
change  has  taken  place  in  the  views  entertained 
among  us  on  this  subject.  I  suppose  that  all  but  a 
small  minority  of  American  Methodists  to-day  would 
repudiate  the  doctrine  that  any  man  was  responsible 
or  punishable  for  Adam's  or  any  one's  sins  except  his 
own  ;  that  Adam  was  in  any  sense,  so  far  as  this  mat- 
ter is  concerned,  any  one's  representative ;  and  that 
hereditary  guilt,  in  its  proper  sense,  was  anything  but 
a  monstrous  conception.  The  views  generally  enter- 
tained, though  certainly  not  always  consciously 
framed  by  the  individuals  holding  them,  are  some- 
thinor  as  follows:  — 

Man  inherits  the  derangement  and  depravity  of  the 
first  parents,  induced  by  their  sin.  This  is  of  the 
nature  of  perverted  moral  tastes,  and  disposition  such 
that,  if  a  man.were  left  to  himself,  he  would  inevitably 
go  wrong,  wholly  violating  and  ignoring  the  divine 
law,  and  so  compassing  his  own  utter  destruction. 
But  it  is  denied  that  this  condition «  does  of  itself 
imply  sin  in  the  proper  sense  of  that  term ;  conse- 
quently it  is  held  that  in  men,  previous  to  actual  trans- 
gression of  known  obligation,  there  is  no  guilt,  and, 
of  course,  no  desert  of  punishment.  It  is  held, 
furthermore,  that  man  is  not  left  to  himself. 

When  tlie  first  man  sinned,  he  became  subject  to 
the  penalty  of  death  and  all  that  was  implied  therein. 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  357 

Under  the  original  dispensation  he  must  have  perished, 
and,  of  course,  the  whole  race  must  have  perished  in 
him.  The  sole  effect  of  his  sin  in  that  case,  on  his 
posterity,  would  have  been  that  they  would  have  had 
no  existence.  But  under  the  dispensation  of  redemp- 
tion it  became  practicable  to  continue  the  race  under 
conditions  which  would  be  fair  and  just  to  them,  since 
not  only  what  was  lost  in  Adam,  but  much  more 
than  that,  would  be  restored  in  Christ.  Hence  the 
doctrine  that  every  child  born  since  the  fall  is  the  off- 
spring not  only  of  Adam,  but  also  of  Christ.  Here 
we  have  a  very  marked  difference  between  the  views 
now  entertained  and  those  accepted  one  hundred 
years  ago. 

On  the  subject  of  the  atonement,  the  movement  of 
thought  has  been  less  definite  and  less  positive. 
While  we,  as  a  denomination,  are  far  enough  from 
those  views  of  Christ's  character  and  work  which 
virtually  do  away  with  the  atonement,  there  certainly 
has  been  an  abandonment  of  those  mechanical  and 
commercial  features  of  the  doctrine  toward  which 
we  find  a  certain  tendency  in  our  earlier  writers. 

A  bald  statement  of  the  theory,  as  formerly  held, 
would  be  something  after  this  form:  Man  having 
sinned,  it  became  necessary  to  the  ends  of  the  divine 
government  that  the  penalty  thus  incurred  should  be 
fully  paid.  If  this  were  inflicted  on  the  proper  sub- 
jects of  the  sin,  eternal  suffering  would  be  the  lot  of 
the  Avhole  race.  The  only  way  in  which  government 
could  be  maintained  and  justice  vindicated,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  salvation  of  the  sinner  secured,  was  for 


358  CENTENNIAL  OF 

an  infinite  being  to  become  a  substitute  for  man,  and 
endure  the  wliole  punishment  due  the  hitter.  This 
was  accomplished  in  Christ,  the  divine  Word  made 
flesh.  The  sufferings  endured  by  him  were  a  satis- 
faction to  the  violated  law,  thus  leaving  man  free 
from  the  guilt  and  condemnation  which  he  had 
incurred. 

In  our  own  Church,  at  present,  there  is  a  consider- 
able variety  of  opinion  on  this  subject.  A  few  go  to 
the  verge  of  heresy,  and  some,  doubtless,  beyond  that, 
so  far  as  to  do  away  with  the  essential  elements  of  the 
atonement  altogether.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are 
some  Avho  hold  the  more  rigid  substitutional  theory, 
that  Christ's  sufferings  were  equivalent  to  what  would 
have  been  suffered  by  men,  had  not  he  been  put  in 
their  place;  that  by  this  sacrifice  of  himself  he 
appeased  the  divine  wrath  and  saved  the  honor  of 
the  divine  government,  which  would  otherwise  have 
been  impaired  by  the  forgiveness  of  human  sin. 

But  I  believe  that  the  more  generally  prevalent 
view,  not  by  any  means  articulated,  nor  perhaps  even 
fully  realized,  is  that,  whatever  obstacle  there  was  on 
the  divine  side  to  man's  justification,  Christ  has  re- 
moved it.  It  is  the  conviction  that  there  was  such  an 
obstacle,  and  that  it  was  infinitely  great ;  but  what 
was  the  nature  of  this  obstacle  there  is  far  less  effort 
than  formerly  to  determine,  and  there  is  something, 
at  least,  of  a  disposition  to  rest  in  the  belief  that  this 
is  one  of  the  matters  that  belong  to  God,  and  so  does 
not  practically  so  much  concern  us.  It  is  felt  that, 
in  this  great  sacrifice,  there  was  an  expression  of  God's 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  359 

infinite  hatred  of  sin  as  a  horrible  thing,  and  at  the 
same  time,  and  in  the  same  act,  of  God's  infinite  love 
for  the  sinner. 

But  there  is,  further,  a  growing  belief  that  this 
offering  of  the  Divine  Man  was  not  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  removing  the  great  obstacle  in  the  way  of 
the  divine  forgiveness.  The  power  which  he  has 
brought  into  the  world,  and  which  he  is  still  exerting 
here,  of  influencing  and  attracting  men  to  him  and 
to  his  methods  of  life,  imparting  this  inflaence  to 
them,  and  making  manifest  in  those  who  accept  him 
his  life  and  power ;  and  this,  too,  aside,  in  some  sense, 
from  the  peculiar  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  a  great 
and  essential  fact  of  the  redeeming  office  which  he 
came  to  discharge.  This  is  quite  distinct  from  the 
somewhat  superficial  "  moral  influence  "  theory,  as  it 
is  popularly  understood.  That  attributes  the  saving 
power  of  Christ  to  his  example  and  the  influence  of 
his  character  in  the  world.  If  I  mistake  not,  the 
great  majority  of  thoughtful  persons  among  us  would 
regard  such  a  view  as  unsatisfactory  and  every  way 
inadequate. 

Closely  connected  with  the  object  of  Christ's  sacri- 
fice, in  its  relation  to  the  divine  government,  is  its 
effect  upon  individual  souls.  One  prominent  feature 
of  the  Augustinian  theology  was  that,  by  Christ's 
offering  of  himself,  he  wrought  out  a  complete  and 
perfect  obedience,  of  such  extent  and  value  that  it 
became  a  substitute  for  the  righteousness  of  men. 
Hence,  to  all  who  accepted  Christ,  his  righteousness 
was  imputed,  and  it  was  reckoned  as  their  own.     Out 


360  CENTENNIAL   OF 

of  this,  naturally  and  logically,  grew  the  doctrine  tliat 
man  could  have  no  proper  righteousness  of  his  own, 
and  that,  however  sinful  and  imperfect  man  might  be, 
if  he  only  had  faith  in  Christ,  Christ's  righteousness 
would  avail  for  him.  Hence  came  the  worst  form  of 
Antinomianism,  and  many  other  notions  revolting  to 
common  sense. 

Now,  while  Wesley  and  his  associates  strenuously 
denied  these  extreme  views,  and  made  powerful  argu- 
ments in  confutation  of  them,  they  did,  nevertheless, 
make  very  free  use  of  the  terms  which  imply,  and,  in- 
deed, assert,  the  imputation  of  Christ's  righteousness. 
The}''  undoubtedly  regarded  this  obedience  of  the  Son 
of  God  as  in  some  way  reckoned  unto  believers,  and 
as  making  up  for  their  lack.  But  it  is  certain  that,  in 
our  day,  and  in  our  Church,  this  expression  is  seldom 
or  never  heard.  The  general  belief,  I  think,  is  that 
there  is  no  more  imputation  of  Christ's  righteousness, 
in  the  proper  sense,  to  the  believer,  than  there  is  of 
Adam's  sin  to  the  unregenerate  ;  that  what  Christ 
does  for  us  in  this  respect  is  not  to  furnish  a  right- 
eousness of  his  own  to  take  the  place  of  ours,  but  to 
give  us  power  to  be  ourselves  righteous  —  to  form  and 
fashion  an  individual  character  after  the  pattern  he 
has  shown. 

In  the  department  of  eschatology  there  has  been  a 
varied  movement  of  thought  among  us,  as  in  other 
denominations.  There  has  been  some  drifting  toward 
the  currents  of  radical  and  rationalistic  views  on  the 
question  of  the  resurrection  and  the  general  judg- 
ment.    A   few   have  taken    up   with   the   theory  of 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  361 

Hymeneiis  and  Philetus,  so  far  as  those  who  are 
dead  are  concerned,  "  that  the  resurrection  is  past 
ah'eady." 

More,  perhaps,  while  giving  no  certain  sound  con- 
cerning the  general  resurrection  and  final  judgment, 
reject  the  doctrine  of  a  physical  resurrection.  But 
the  prevalent  conviction  among  us  is  that,  while  the 
old  formulas  by  which  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection 
of  the  body  was  expressed  are  to  be  considerably  mod- 
ified, there  is  a  natural  meaning  to  be  attached  to  the 
Scriptural  phrase  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead, 
which  cannot  consist  with  any  view  which  does  not 
imply  a  new  body,  —  spiritualized  and  etherealized,  it 
may  be,  but  some  way  a  reconstruction  or  outcome  of 
the  natural  body,  and  that  this  reconstruction  will 
take  place  at  some  future  time,  and  in  connection 
with  a  general  judgment. 

It  is  also  undoubtedly  true  that  the  old  doctrines 
concerning  future  punishment  are  either  much  mod- 
ified or  somehow  very  loosely  held,  by  certain  of  our 
people  to-day.  It  is  nearly  inevitable  that,  when  any 
great  principles  have  been  put  in  a  somewhat  severe 
and  extreme  form,  or  held  in  a  mechanical  way,  a 
reaction  from  them  will  proceed  in  many  cases  to  the 
opposite  extreme.  So  among  us  a  few,  at  least,  hold 
only  in  a  vague  and  indefinite  way  some  mild  doctrine 
of  future  punishment.  Others  soften  the  conception 
of  the  penalty,  so  that,  at  least,  it  no  longer  shocks  and 
terrifies,  or  operates  effectually  on  the  mind  of  the 
evil-doer.  Some,  also,  no  doubt,  believe  in  a  hesitat- 
ing way  in  the  possibility  of  a  future  probation  for,  at 


362  CENTENNIAL   OF 

least,  some  souls.  But  as  a  Church,  while  declining 
the  use  of  terms  which  represent  the  destiny  of  the 
finally  impenitent  as  a  process  of  merely  physical  tor- 
ture, we  still  hold  firmly  to  the  belief  that  the  soul 
persisting  till  death  in  sin  and  unbelief  becomes  eter- 
nally lost. 

Our  Church  has  also  felt  the  influence  of  the  recent 
agitation  concerning  the  character  of  the  Bible. 
While  a  few  among  us  have  doubtless  fallen  into  the 
belief  that  it  is  not  only  not  wholly  inspired,  but  that 
much  of  it  is  mere  poetry,  fable,  and  legend,  the  great 
mass  of  our  members  and  ministers  hold  the  view  that, 
as  a  whole,  it  comes  from  God,  and  that  Avhat  it  says, 
when  fairly  interpreted,  God  says.  Undoubtedly 
here,  as  in  other  cases,  there  has  been  a  progress  of 
thought  since  the  beginning  of  the  century,  and  that 
the  doctrines  concerning  the  Bible  which  would 
formerly  have  been  so  stated  as  to  give  us  the  impres- 
sion of  a  mechanical  and  arbitrary  process  of  inspiraT 
tion,  are  now  stated  in  other  and  more  reasonable 
forms.  Probably  Avhere,  in  the  elder  day,  a  writer 
would  have  given  us  a  view  of  the  divine  agency,  as 
that  of  mere  dictation,  from  which  the  human  agency 
was  wholly  excluded,  one  of  our  present  writers 
would  represent  the  inspiration  more  in  accordance 
with  the  natural  meaning  of  the  term,  and  would 
regard  the  writers  of  the  sacred  books  as  wholly 
human,  and  yet  as  wholly  inspired. 

I  have  given,  at  some  length,  the  instances  of  varia- 
tion of  thought,  and  endeavored  to  point  out  the 
particulars  in  which  there  has  been  genuine  progress, 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  363 

as  well  as  to  allude  to  those  in  which  change  does  not 
imply  progress.  It  is  true  there  have  been,  and  still 
are,  heretical  tendencies  among  us ;  but  these  are 
doubtless  not  greater  nor  more  numerous  than  we 
should  naturally  expect;  while,  so  far  as  the  great 
fundamental  and  practical  doctrines  are  concerned, 
we  remain  on  the  ancient  foundation. 


ASBURT  FIKST  M.  E.  CHURCH,  SPRINGFIELD,  MASS. 


Rbt.  C.  a,  LmxEPiELD,  A.M.,  Pastor. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE  INFLUENTIAL  PREACHERS  NEW  ENGLAND  METH- 
ODISM HAS  FURNISHED  TO  THE  DENOMINATION. 

BY  KEY.  D.  SHERMAN,  D.D. 

Though  planted  in  a  hard  soil  and  confined  to  nar- 
row limits,  the  people  of  New  England  have  exerted 
a  wide  and  salntary  influence  upon  every  part  of  the 
Republic.  Bringing  with  them  from  the  Old  Home 
tlie  best  type  of  civilization,  their  ideas  and  men  have 
penet]"ated  every  part  of  the  continent,  and,  in  the 
West  especially,  have  molded  the  civil  and  religious 
institutions.  The  West  is  little  more  than  New  England 
magnified  and  intensified.  New  England  has  contrib- 
uted her  young  life  to  build  the  West ;  in  all  the  great 
centres  you  find  ourj-oung  men  with  home-born  ideas 
and  habits.  Brains,  enterprise,  and  money  are  New 
England's  contribution  to  the  West,  far  and  near,  a 
contribution  whose  value  caiinot  be  over    estimated. 

The  civil  influence  of  the  East  on  the  regions 
beyond  is  paralleled  by  the  religious.  The  several  de- 
nominations have  followed  the  advancing  populations 
with  a  blessing.  In  this  work  the  Methodists  have 
borne  honorable  part.  Their  ideas,  methods,  and  men 
have  gone  far  beyond  New  England.  In  this  paper 
we  only  make  note  of  the  preachers  who  have  made 
their  influence  felt  far  beyond  New  England.     And, 

[365] 


366  CENTENNIAL  OF 

to  insure  reasonable  brevity,  we  present  t]iem  in 
groups,  based  on  lines  of  service. 

New  England  has  made  a  handsome  contribution 
to  the  Episcopal  forces  of  the  Methodist  Church.  Of 
forty-two  general  superintendents,  chosen  since  the 
foundino-  of  the  Church,  ten  were  born  or  trained 
in  New  England.  The  ten  make  some  of  the  most 
considerable  men  in  the  board;  their  names  are 
household  words  to  the  remotest  borders  of  Metho- 
dism. Soule,  Hedding,  Hamline,  Janes,  Baker, 
Clark,  G.  Haven,  E.  O.  Haven,  Warren  and  Mallalieu 
are  the  names  of  recognized  leaders  in  the  sacra- 
mental host,  who  have  had  a  large  hand  in  the  up- 
building and  outspread  of  the  great  Church  in  which 
they  are  overseers.  Look  at  them  !  Few  men  will 
better  endure  scrutiny. 

Joshua  Soule  was  a  statesman,  a  leader,  an  inspira- 
tion, who  in  the  civil  domain  would  have  been  a  duke, 
a  prime  minister,  a  conqueror,  or  a  party  manager  borne 
upon  the  shoulders  of  his  henchmen  up  to  the  high  place 
of  the  presidency.  He  was  born  in  Bristol,  Me.,  Aug. 
1, 1781,  and  died  in  Tennessee,  Mar.  6, 18G7.  He  was 
orator,  book  agent,  and,  in  1820,  was  elected  bishop. 
Because  the  conference  had  voted  for  an  election  for 
presiding  eldership,  he  refused  to  be  ordained.  Four 
yeais  later,  the  Church  stepped  down,  and  this  ecclesi- 
astical Bismarck  stepped  up  by  a  re-election  and  ordi- 
nation as  bishop.  His  triumph  gives  a  measure  of  the 
man  ;  ideas,  courage,  energy  put  him  at  the  head  and 
kept  him  there  ;  a  high  churchman  and  an  aristocrat, 
he  very  naturally  followed  the  South  in  the  secession. 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  367 

Elijah  Hedding,  the  associate  and  fast  friend  of 
Soule,  was  a  solid  and  sensible  man,  with  a  legal  mind, 
a  warm  heart,  and  a  steady  purpose.  Born  Jan.  T, 
1780,  just  over  the  border  in  Pine  Plains,  he  early 
removed  to  Vermont,  where  the  Methodists  found 
him.  He  died  April  9,  1852.  He  was  chosen  to  the 
Episcopacy  with  Soule  in  1824,  and  made  a  great  rec- 
ord. As  a  judge  of  law,  he  was  the  John  Marshall  of 
the  Church,  his  decisions  being  usually  clear  and  con- 
sistent. His  brain  was  level ;  he  surveyed  truth  in  its 
wholeness.  As  a  pillar  in  the  Church  of  God,  he  stood 
firm  and  constant ;  he  was  one  of  the  fixed  quantities ; 
men  could  lean  hard  against  him  without  fear  of  going 
over.  He  was  altogether  an  honor  to  the  people 
who  acknowledged  him  as  a  leader. 

Leonidas  L.  Hamlin  was  born  in  Burlington, 
Conn.,  May  10, 1797,  and  died  in  Iowa,  Mar.  22, 1865. 
Though  born  in  the  East,  his  training  and  life  were 
in  the  West.  In  the  stormy  conference  of  1844  lie 
was,  on  the  strength  of  a  single  speech,  elected  to  the 
Episcopac3%  On  account  of  ill  health  he  resigned  in 
1852.  He  excelled  as  a  preacher,  a  thinker,  a  writer, 
even  more  than  as  an  administrator  and  leader  of  men. 
Ill  health  gave  an  ascetic  and  gloomy  aspect  to  his  life. 
He  wanted  in  sunlight.  Men  Avere  driven  by  his 
arguments  and  appeals  rather  than  warmed  by  the 
rays  of  light  and  heat  from  a  great  soul. 

Edmund  Storer  Janes  was  the  complement  of 
Hamline.  Warm,  enthusiastic,  a  zealous  preacher 
and  accomplished  platform  speaker,  he  was  also  a 
great  administrator.     He  knew  men  and  affairs,  had 


368  CENTENNIAL  OF 

tact,  energy,  push,  and  indomitable  perseverance. 
Born  in  Connecticut,  April  27,  1807,  he  died  in  New 
York,  Sept.  18,  1876,  honored  by  all  who  knew  him, 

Osman  C.  Baker,  born  July  30,  1813,  and 
deceased,  Dec.  30,  1871,  was  an  elegant  scliolar, 
an  educator,  and  a  gentleman,  modest  in  his 
bearing  and  elevated  in  purpose.  He  came  to  the 
Episcopacy  with  Scott,  Ames,  and  Simpson,  in  1852,  as 
the  favorite  of  Hedding,  who  appreciated  his  method, 
scholarly  taste,  and  knowledge  of  the  Discijjline  and 
the  rules  of  ecclesiastical  administration.  He  was 
sound,  sensible,  cultured  rather  than  strong,  eitlier  in 
the  pulpit  ol*  as  a  leader  of  men.  His  work  on  the 
Discipline  is  an  authority. 

Davis  W.  Clark  was  born  in  Mount  Desert,  Me., 
Feb.  25, 1812,  and  died  in  Cincinnati,  May  23,  1871. 
An  able  educator  and  laborious  preacher,  he  was 
elected  to  the  Episcopacy  with  Thomson  and  Kingsley, 
in  1864.  Thouoh  not  brilliant,  he  had  a  orenius  for 
work,  and  held  a^  large  place  in  the  esteem  and  con- 
fidence of  the  Church. 

Gilbert  Haven,  born  in  Maiden,  Sept.  21,  1821,  and 
died  Jan.  8,  1880,  was  a  unique  man,  a  genius,  and 
the  best  loved  and  hated  person  in  the  Church.  As 
a  writer,  conversationalist,  and  platform  talker  he  was 
versatile  and  electric.  He  drew  about  him  a  group 
of  friends  who  felt  his  heart  beat,  and  swore  b}'  liis 
red  beard.  As  a  jDaragraphist  and  letter  writer,  he 
had  few  equals,  in  the  Church  or  out.  To  those  who 
came  near  him  there  was  an  inexpressible  charm  in 
his  conversation,  distinguished  for  intelligence  and  a 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  369 

ready  flow  of  genial  wit  and  humor.  He  knew  how 
to  laugh,  and  was  not  devoid  of  the  capacity  for  crying. 
The  gift  of  management  was  born  in  him ;  he  was  a 
natural  bishop,  with  his  hand  ever  on  the  machinery. 
However  much  they  hated,  men  were  drawn  into  his 
orbit,  and  felt  the  power  of  his  personal  magnetism. 

E.  O.  Haven  was  unlike  his  cousin.  Versatile, 
preacher,  teacher,  professor  and  president  of  college, 
editor,  writer,  jack-of-all-trades,  and,  in  spite  of  the 
old  saw,  good  at  each,  he  was  a  sound,  and  ready,  and 
conservative  man.  Respected  by  everybody,  he  drew 
nobody  to  the  inner  chambers  of  his  heart.  In  sym- 
pathy with  the  best  ideas,  he  was  never  able  to  under- 
stand the  nature  of  a  radical  like  Gilbert  Haven,  and 
could  never  understand  what  use  the  world  had  for 
the  species. 

Henry  W.  Warren  and  Willard  F.  Mallalieu  are 
living  New  England  specimens,  of  which  the  Church 
is  not  ashamed.  Warren  was  born  in  1831,  in  Wil- 
liamsburg, Mass.,  and  Mallalieu  was  born  in  Sutton, 
in  1828.  The  former  was  elected  to  the  Episcopacy 
in  1880,  and  the  latter  in  1884.  Warren  is  brilliant 
with  pen  and  tongue  ;  a  pulpit  orator  with  the  bril- 
liancy without  the  warmth  of  Simpson.  Mallalieu  is 
the  indefatigable  worker.  He  warms  with  the  French 
enthusiasm,  and  pursues  the  battle  with  the  steady 
energy  of  a  Grant.  With  pen  and  tongue  he  is 
ever  ready,  and  to  excel  him,  one  must  be  early 
and  always  at  it. 

2.  The  educators  of  New  England  have  made 
themselves  felt  in  far-distant  regions.     The  corps  of 


370  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Methodist  educators  contains  noble  names  —  Fiske, 
Olin,  Cummings,  Raymond,  Foster,  Patten,  Adams, 
Allyn,  Raymond,  Cooke,  Steele,  Newhall,  Hinman, 
Allen,  Torsey,  Warren,  and  H.  F.  Fisk. 

In  this  noble  band,  Wilbur  Fisk  easily  occupies  the 
first  place.  He  is  the  pole-star,  around  which  the  con- 
stellations revolve.  He  led  the  way.  He  taught 
the  Methodists  how  to  educate,  and  trained  not  a  few 
of  her  teachers  and  leaders.  Above  any  other,  he 
inspired  the  denomination  with  an  enthusiasm  for 
education.  He  founded  Wilbraham  and  Middle- 
town,  whose  light  penetrates  the  distant  places  of 
Methodism,  and  reminds  us  of  the  indebtedness  of 
the  Church  at  large  to  New  England.  Of  those  who 
followed  Fiske,  we  should  not  pass  without  emphasis, 
Olin,  Cummings,  INIiner  Raymond,  and  W.  F.  Warren, 
names  ever  memorable  in  the  educational  annals  -of 
New  England. 

Olin  Avas  a  giant,  physically  and  mentally. 
He  lived  in  the  South,  and  was  president  of  Ran- 
dolph Macon,  before  he  came  to  the  Wesleyan, 
in  1842.  Like  Demosthenes,  he  blended  intense 
feeling  with  logical  force.  His  sermons  were  torna- 
does, sweeping  all  in  their  path,  by  the  energy 
behind  the  elements. 

Olin  was  followed  by  Cummings,  who  presided  in 
turn  over  three  universities,  leaving  his  mark  upon 
each.  A  man  of  strong  mind  and  will,  an  indefati- 
gable worker  on  large  and  noble  plans,  he  reared  his 
own  monument,  in  brick  and  stone,  at  Middletown ; 
and  what  was  even  more  remarkable,  rounded  out 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  371 

a  great  life  at  Evaiiston,  by  deeds  which  would  have 
honored  a  young  man. 

But  in  natural  gifts  and  aptitude  for  his  work, 
Miner  Raymond  was  one  of  the  best  of  our  New 
England  educators.  With  a  strong,  logical  mind, 
he  held  the  key  to  other  minds,  and  knew,  as 
few  men  do,  how  to  develop  and  mould  those  com- 
mitted to  his  care.  To  be  associated  with  such 
a  teacher,  is  in  itself  an  education.  For  educa- 
tion is  not  in  college  buildings,  or  old  foundations, 
but  in  men  who  know  how  to  touch  other  souls.  As 
Fiske  gave  form  to  Wilbraham  and  Middletown, 
so  Warren  has  stamped,  with  his  own  ideas  and 
methods,  Boston  University,  which  iiMist  forever 
stand  as  the  expression  of  his  life  work.  Writing, 
speaking,  and  books,  have  been  but  secondary  to 
this  great  work  for  the  ages. 

3.  Three  of  our  notable  book  agents  were  born 
on  New  England  soil,  viz.,  Ruter,  Bangs,  and  Porter. 
Martin  Ruter  was  born  in  Charlton,  Mass.,  April  3, 
1785,  and  died  in  Texas,  May  16,  1838.  One  of 
the  famous  preachers  of  his  time,  self-educated  and 
eloquent,  he  was  principal  at  Newmarket  in  1818, 
and  president  of  Augusta  College  in  1828,  and  of 
Alleghany  College  in  1834.  He  did  much  to  enthuse 
the  denomination  in  the  causes  of  learning  and 
missions.  In  1820  he  was  chosen  book  agent  in 
Cincinnati,  and  served  the  Church  well  in  that 
department. 

Nathan  Bangs  was  the  Jupiter  Tonans  of  the 
early  Church,  for  which  he   spoke,  wrote,  planned, 


372  CENTENNIAL  OF 

and  labored  througli  a  long  life.  Born  at  Bridge- 
port, Conn,,  May  2,  1778,  he  died  in  great  peace, 
May  3,  1862.  His  life  was  crowned  with  honors, 
and  his  name  is  still,  through  all  the  Church,  as 
ointment  poured  forth.  To  few  men  is  the  Metho- 
dist Church  so  deeply  indebted  as  to  Nathan  Bangs, 
preacher,  editor,,  historian,  controversialist,  and  book 
agent,  missionary  secretary,  and  what  not.  From 
1820  to  1828,  he  was  book  agent  at  New  York,  and 
managed  to  free  the  Concern  from  debt,  to  extend 
the  sales  and  improve  the  character  of  the  issues. 
He  established  the  Christian  Advocate  and  Methodist 
Magazine. 

James  Porter,  preacher,  author,  controversialist, 
platform  speaker,  man  of  business,  and  ecclesi- 
astical lawyer,  became  book  agent  in  New  York 
in  1856.  He  was  known  to  the  extremities  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  his  poAver  was  felt. 

4.  New  England  has  contributed  to  the  Church 
at  large  some  conspicuous  editors  and  writers.  To 
go  no  further,  there  are  Merritt,  Stevens,  Wise  and 
Cobleigh. 

Timothy  Merritt  was  a  strong,  sensible,  sound, 
as  well  as  a  devoutly  pious  man,  a  leader  of  the 
thought  of  the  Church.  He  was  born  at  Barkham- 
stead.  Conn.,  Oct.  2,  1775,  and  died  in  Lynn,  Mass, 
in  1845.  He  wrote  much  for  the  early  numbers 
of  Zion's  Herald^  and,  in  1832,  became  editor  of  the 
Christian  Advocate  in  New  York,  whence  his  influ- 
ence was  felt  through  the  whole  Churcli. 

A    half    century    ago,    Abel    Stevens,    the    boy 


NEW  ENGLAND    METHODISM.  373 

preacher,  created  a  sensation  among  New  England 
Methodists,  charming  the  people,  first,  by  his  electric 
speech,  and  later  by  the  sentences  which  flowed 
from  his  pen.  As  editor  of  Zioti's  Herald,  and  later 
of  the  Advocate,  he  became  a  literary  power  over  the 
whole  Church.  As  the  historian  of  Methodism,  his 
name  must  forever  remain  fresh  in  the  recollection 
of  all  intelligent  Methodists. 

Daniel  Wise,  though  not  born  on  the  sacred  soil, 
will  be  remembered  as  New  England's  contribution 
to  the  writing  corps.  As  editor  of  Zion's  Herald 
and  the  Sunday-school  publications,  he  will  be  long 
remembered.  He  has  always  known  how  to  address 
youth,  in  speech  and  volume. 

But  New  England  does  not  forget  Cobleigh,  the 
preacher,  the  earnest  worker,  and  editor  of  Zion's 
Herald,  and  later,  editor  of  the  Methodist  Advocate, 
and  president  of  the  East  Tennessee  College,  who 
gave  his  life  to  the  Church. 

5.  To  name  all  the  preachers  who  have  won  fame 
beyond  New  England,  would  not  be  easy.  We 
must  satisfy  ourselves  by  naming  a  few.  The  list 
already  given,  contains  the  names  of  preachers  who 
won  fame  in  the  pulpit,  and  something  more,  which 
gives  them  a  place  in  the  above  lists.  Studley, 
Trafton,  tlie  two  Hatfields,  J.  O.  Peck,  and  I  know 
not  how  many  more  have  won  on  preaching  lines. 

In  view  of  the  whole,  it  will  be  conceded  that 
New  England  Methodism  has  made  a  worthy  con- 
tribution to  the  preaching  and  administrative  talent 
of  the  Church. 


ST.  JOHN'S  M.  E.  CHURCH,  SOUTH  BOSTON,  MASS. 


Rev.  Louis  Albert  Banks,  D.D.,  Pastor. 


CHAPTER  X. 

METHODISM  AND  THE  COUNTRY  TOWNS. 

BY  REV.  C.  A.  PLDMER,  OF  THE  EAST  MAINE  CONFERENCE. 

Methodism  has  been  defined  to  be  "  Christianity 
in  earnest."  Christianity  has  four  elements :  1.  It 
is  a  system  of  doctrines  concerning  rational  and 
spiritual  beings,  moral  relations,  and  destinies ;  2. 
It  is  a  personal  life,  beginning  in  the  conversion  of 
the  individual,  and  so  maintained  that  its  fruits 
abound  in  his  daily  walk  ;  3.  It  is  an  organized 
embodiment  of  such  personal  religious  lives,  for  its 
own  extension  in  the  conversion  of  other  individuals; 
4.  It  is  a  system  of  rewards,  to  be  bestowed  in  a 
future  life. 

Methodism  is  Christianity  aroused  from  the  sleep 
of  the  formalism  of  the  State  Church  of  Great  Brit- 
ain, and  the  erroneous  theology  and  lifeless  church- 
ism  of  the  Puritans  of  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

Methodism,  in  its  beginning,  was  a  personal  relig- 
ious life  with  the  Rev.  John  Wesley.  In  its  intro- 
duction into  New  England,  it  was  that  same  personal 
religious  life  in  the  Rev.  Jesse  Lee  and  his  co- 
laborers.  It  holds,  as  a  fundamental  principle,  the 
doctrine  of  Wesley,  which  does  not  consist  in  con- 

[375] 


376  CENTENNIAL  OF 

fessions  and  articles,    in    theories  and    speculative 
philosophies,  but  in  a  personal  religious  life. 

Its  first  question  addressed  to  adult  subjects  for 
baptism,  "  Dost  thou  renounce  tlie  devil  and  all  his 
works,  the  vain  pomp  and  glory  of  the  world,  with 
all  covetous  desires  of  the  same,  and  the  carnal 
desires  of  the  flesh,  so  that  thou  wilt  not  follow  nor 
be  led  by  them  ? "  declares  the  importance  with 
which  Methodism  holds  and  teaches  this  new  life. 
This  importance  is  also  revealed  in  the  questions 
addressed  to  all  persons  seeking  admission  into  the 
fellowship  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  "  Do 
you  here  in  the  presence  of  God  and  of  this  congre- 
gation, renew  the  solemn  promise  contained  in  the 
baptismal  covenant,  ratifying  and  confirming  the 
same,  and  acknowledging  yourself  bound  faithfully 
to  observe  and  keep  that  covenant?"  "Have  you 
saving  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ?"  And  to 
each  candidate  seeking  the  privilege  and  authority 
to  minister  at  her  altars,  Methodism  propounds  the 
searching  inquiries:  "Have  you  faith  in  Christ?" 
"Are  you  going  on  to  perfection?"  "Do  you  expect 
to  be  made  perfect  in  love  in  this  life?"  "Are  you 
earnestly  striving  after  it  ?  " 

Let  none  infer  from  this  that  Meth6dism  has  no 
doctrinal  basis,  for  it  has.  The  position  of  Method- 
ism is  this  :  —  It  teaches  personal  religion  first,  and 
through  that  religious  life  it  seeks  after  the  knowl- 
edge of  God  and  his  truth.  "  If  any  man  will  do  his 
will,  he  shall  .know  of  the  doctrine."  It  is  unto 
them  whose  "  life  is   hid  with  Christ  in  God  "  that 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  377 

the  "  Spirit  of  truth "  shall  show  the  things  of 
Christ. 

Mr.  Wesley  said,  "  The  world  is  my  parish ; "  the 
world ;  not  the  crowded  cities  alone  ;  but  the  world. 
The  people  of  the  cities  and  the  country  towns  are 
both  the  children  of  God.  They  are  brethren.  They 
are  the  parish  of  Methodism.  Methodism  has  a 
relation  to  every  person  on  this  round  earth,  and 
each  person  demands  that  the  purity  and  warmth  of 
a  divinely  religious  life  shall  be  ever  found  at  Meth- 
odist altars  and  in  Methodist  homes. 

The  country  towns  of  New  England,  as  a  part 
of  this  parish,  claim  our  attention  at  the  present 
time.  It  is  no  disparagement  of  these  rural  hamlets 
that  Mr.  Lee  preached  his  sermon,  from  which  the 
beginning  of  Methodism  in  New  England  has  been 
dated,  under  the  spreading  branches  of  the  historic 
old  elm  on  Boston  Common,  The  tones  of  that 
sermon  had  hardly  ceased  to  reverberate  through  the 
foliage  of  nature's  temple,  when  the  country  around 
waked  unto  the  presence  and  preaching  of  the  devout 
man  of  God.  The  personal  appearance  and  manner 
of  preaching  of  Mr.  Lee,  at  that  time,  were  described 
as  follows:  —  "Lee  was  stout,  athletic,  full  of  vigor, 
of  muscle,  and  feeling.  His  face  was  strongly 
marked  by  shrewdness,  tenderness,  and  cheerfulness, 
if  not  humor ;  his  manners  by  unpretending  dignity, 
remarkable  temperance  in  debate,  and  fervid  piet}'^, 
mixed  frequently,  however,  with  vivid  sallies  of  wit, 
and  startling  repartee.  The  manifestation  of  hon- 
homie  gave  him  ready  access  to  the  popular  mind." 


378  CENTENNIAL  OP 

His  co-laborers  with  himself,  and  their  success- 
ors, were  aflame  with  the  spirit  of  Wesley;  and 
from  the  liamlet,  the  lone  farmhouse,  the  camp  of 
lumbermen  in  the  depth  of  the  forest,  and  the  fish- 
erman's cot  by  the  sea,  they  heard  the  call,  "  Come 
over  and  help  us."  So  faithfully  was  the  response  to 
that  call  given,  that  a  community  can  scarcely  be 
found  in  New  England,  which  has  not  been  reached 
by  the  Methodist  itinerant. 

In  many  of  the  sparsely  settled  parts  of  the 
country  the  people  were  without  religious  organiza- 
tions. Many  of  the  younger  people  had  never  heard 
preaching,  and  many  of  the  older  people  had  almost 
forgotten  the  joyful  sound.  In  such  communities, 
the  itinerant  was  welcomed  with  great  eagerness. 
The  people  listened  gladly  to  his  message.  He  was 
the  joyful  messenger,  welcomed  by  the  watchmen  of 
Isaiah ;  —  "  How  beautiful  upon  the  mountains  are 
the  feet  of  him  that  bringeth  good  tidings,  that 
publisheth  peace;  that  bringeth  good  tidings  of 
good,  that  publisheth  salvation."  Many  of  the  people 
believed  the  glad  tidings,  sought  and  found  the  plain 
gospel  truth,  as  preached  to  them,  to  be  the  way  and 
the  life. 

In  the  older  and  more  densely  settled  farming 
districts,  the  older  churches  were  present,  and  the 
social  influence,  wealth,  and  culture  were  claimed 
by  those  churches.  The  most  contradictor}^  religious 
doctrines  were  entertained.  Tlie  Sabbath  sermons 
were  long  dissertations,  with  formal  divisions,  upon 
the    Divine    Sovereignty,    Predestination,   Election, 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  379 

Reprobation,  and  kindred  subjects.  The  social 
gatherings  were  oftentimes  seasons  of  heated  relig- 
ious controversy.  In  these  communities  the  itiner- 
ant was  by  many  received  and  treated  as  an  intruder, 
though  lie  was  gladly  welcomed  by  others,  espe- 
cially among  the  poor.  This  continued  until  many 
of  the  early  Methodists  came  to  think  that  their 
especial  mission  was  unto  the  poor  and  middle 
classes. 

The  same  results  followed  their  preaching  in  these 
country  hamlets,  which  have  been  noted  as  fol- 
lowing their  labors  elsewhere.  Multitudes  were 
turned  away  from  sinful  habits,  and  converted  unto 
the  Lord  Jesus.  The  old  tliemes  have  been  banished 
largely  from  most  of  the  evangelical  pulpits,  and  the 
people  are  invited  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  who  "  tasted 
death  for  every  man."  They  are  now  taught  that  it 
is  the  Christian's  privilege  to  have  the  witness  of 
the  Spirit,  a  full  assurance  of  present  salvation. 
Aside  from  these  changes,  to  be  noted  in  the  pulpits 
of  the  older  churches  in  New  England,  so  many 
converts  have  gone  from  Methodist  altars  into 
their  folds  that  the  spirit  of  intolerance  and  exclu- 
siveness  is  fast  passing  away,  and  mutual  sympathy 
and  respect  are  to  be  observed  among  the  members 
of  the  different  cliurches.  There  is  a  hearty  co-op- 
eration in  the  great  work  of  building  the  kingdom 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  on  earth,  each  family  knowing 
that  the  others  have  an  important  part  in  bringing 
about  the  grand  consummation. 

The  itinerancy  and  the  special  and  peculiar  ser- 


380  CENTENNIAL  OP 

vices  of  Methodism,  the  old  time  quarterly  meeting, 
the  love-feast,  and  the  class-meeting,  have  a  wonder- 
ful adaptation  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  people  in 
the  country  towns.  The  value  of  Methodism  in 
these  towns  may  be  gathered  from  the  following 
facts  :  — 1.  Many  of  the  pillars  in  the  most  flourish- 
ing churches  in  the  city  stations,  as  well  as  in  the 
country  charges,  have  been  gathered  from  these 
country  homes ;  2.  Seventy-two  per  cent  of  a  large 
body  of  ministers,  whose  birthplace  is  known  to  the 
writer,  are  the  sons  of  rural  districts  and  country 
hamlets,  leaving  but  twenty-eight  per  cent  who 
came  from  the  homes  and  churches  of  the  cities  and 
larger  villages. 

That  the  numbers  and  character  of  the  rural  poj)- 
ulation,  in  some  parts  of  New  England,  are  rap- 
idly changing,  must  be  apparent  to  each  careful 
observer.  This  decline  in  numbers  follows  the 
inventive  genius  of  the  age,  affording  to  the  hus- 
bandman such  mechanical  helps  that  two  men  are 
doing  the  work  formerly  done  by  six  or  eight  men. 
In  the  adjustment  of  her  work  in  the  rural  districts, 
Methodism  must  consider  that  the  population,  in 
many  parts,  for  many  years  to  come,  if  ever,  will  not 
be  much  above  the  present  numbers. 

The  change  in  the  character  of  the  population 
follows  the  removing  of  large  numbers  of  the  most 
enterprising  and  prosperous  families  to  the  more  fer- 
tile farming  districts  of  the  central  and  western  parts 
of  the  country;  and  the  abandoning  of  the  farms  by 
others,  that  they  may  engage  in  manufacturing  and 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  381 

trading ;  and  the  coming  of  another  people  to  culti- 
vate the  abandoned  farms. 

What  is  the  duty  of  Methodism  to  these  com- 
munities? Is  her  mission  accomplished  when  she 
cares  for  her  own,  and  leaves  the  new  population  to 
themselves  or  to  the  care  of  others? 

The  world  is  the  parish  of  Methodism.  She  holds 
a  relation  to  each  individual.  So  long  as  there  is  a 
family  or  an  individual  whom  she  may  help,  her 
work  is  not  finished.  It  is  her  duty  to  carry  the 
gospel  unto  these  people. 

The  Lord  Jesus  was  never  more  highly  honored 
than  when  the  multitude  crowded  him  in  the  moun- 
tains of  Galilee,  bringing  with  them  their  "lame, 
blind,  dumb,  maimed,  and  many  others,  and  cast  them 
down  at  Jesus'  feet."  What  a  throng  was  that! 
What  a  company  to  gather  at  the  feet  of  one  who 
called  for  followers !  What  a  people  to  engage  in 
the  cause  of  a  reformer  who  went  about  doing  good  I 
What  a  host  from  which  to  enlist  the  soldiery  of  the 
King  of  truth  and  purity!  But  he  healed  them  all, 
and  they  glorified  the  God  of  Israel. 

It  is  the  mission  of  Methodism  to  bring  those 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel,  those  having 
a  lifeless  gospel,  those  having  humanly  devised  rit- 
uals, which  have  been  substituted  for  the  truth  of 
the  gospel,  and  the  spiritually  diseased  and  dead  of 
every  sort,  and  lay  them  down  at  Jesus'  feet. 

Standing  to-day  amid  the  harvests  of  the  first  cen- 
tury of  toil  in  New  England,  and  in  the  light  of 
the  rising  sun  of   the   second  century,  Methodism 


382         NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM. 

should  take  to  herself  the  mind  of  her  Divine  Mas- 
ter. She  should  go  about  doing  good  ;  to  be  e3'^es  to 
the  blind,  hearing  to.  the  deaf,  healing  to  the  sick, 
comfort  to  the  sorrowing,  life  to  the  dead,  pardon 
and  purity  to  the  guilty,  salvation  to  the  lost. 


CHESTNUT  STREET  M.  E.  CHURCH,  PORTLAND,  ME. 

Rev.  N.  T.  Whitakeb,  D.D.,  Pastor. 


CHAPTER  XL 

JOHN  Wesley's  akminianism:   whence  was  it? 

BY   REV.  R.   H.  HOWARD,  PH.D. 

Chaplain  McCabe  awhile  since  somewhat  inad- 
vertently declared:  "James  Arminius  gave  us  the 
Arminian  theology,  and  the  Arminian  theology  un- 
fettered the  mighty  soul  of  John  Wesley.''  On  this 
I  would  remark  :  — 

1.  James  Arminius  did  not  give  us  our  Arminian- 
ism.  The  Arminian  theology  has,  in  point  of  fact, 
been  in  existence  ever  since  the  days  of  the  apostles. 
It  was  the  original  apostolic  theology.  It  assumed 
a  more  definite  and  sj^stematic  form  after  Augustine, 
and  as  a  reaction  against  his  extreme  views,  and  was 
known  as  Semi-Pelagianism.  As  the  creed  of  the 
State  Church  at  that  remote  day,  however,  was 
Augustinian,  and  as  the  creed-makers  of  the  past 
have  usually  been  of  the  Augustinian  faith,  the 
more  moderate,  rational.  Biblical,  Christian,  and 
apostolic  views  of  the  Semi-Pelagians  were  mostly, 
though  never  wholly,  suppressed.  They  survived 
the  Middle  Ages ;  they  survived  the  Reformation, 
which  was,  for  the  most  part,  intensely  Augustinian, 
the  Augustinian  party  finding  its  chief  representa- 
tive and  ablest  advocate,  as  is  well  known,  in  John 
Calvin.     Indeed,  from  this  period,  so  deeply  does 

[385] 


386  CENTENNIAL  OF 

the  latter  seem  to  have  impressed  his  ideas  upon  the 
thought  of  tlie  age,  the  dominant  faith  was  known 
by  liis  name.  Luther  was  decidedly  Augustinian, 
St.  Augustine  having,  from  the  first,  been  his  favorite 
author.  Melanchthon  was  moderately  Augustinian. 
Meanwhile,  the  freedomists,  as  Dr.  Whedon,  I 
think,  was  accustomed  to  call  them,  —  and  by  the 
way,  it  is  a  strange  circumstance  that  there  seems 
never  to  have  been  evolved  any  one  general  term  by 
which  to  designate  the  distinctive  theology,  antliro- 
pology,  and  philosophy  of  Methodism,  now  denomi- 
nated Arminianism,  —  these  freedomists,  after  the 
conflicts  of  the  Reformation  had  subsided,  were 
found  abounding,  to  some  considerable  extent,  in  the 
Netherlands.  One  of  these,  it  would  seem,  had 
issued  a  book  in  defence  of  the  views  of  his  sect. 
This  work,  involving  naturally  a  vigorous  attack 
upon  the  jirevailing  creed,  was  considered  sufficiently 
formidable  to  call  for  the  appointment  of  the  ablest 
theologian  of  the  day  to  answer  it.  The  man  selected 
for  this  important  work  was  none  other  than  James 
Arminius,  the  bright  particular  star  of  the  famous 
University  of  Leyden.  He  proceeded  to  address 
liimself  diligently  to  his  task ;  but,  instead  of  refut- 
ing the  arguments  of  his  opponents,  he  became  him- 
self a  convert  to  them.  Unable  to  answer  their 
arguments,  he  was  candid  and  honorable  enough 
to  confess  the  fact.  He  was  convinced  that  "Ar- 
minianism "  was  of  the  Bible  after  all,  and  lie  accord- 
ingly gave  to  it  his  hearty  assent  and  scholarly 
indorsement. 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  887 

2.  Arminius,  therefore,  did  not  give  to  us  that 
system  of  theology  that,  for  convenience,  has  come 
down  to  us  by  his  name.  He  did  do  much  to  give 
this  oldest  theology  reputation,  to  elaborate  and  give 
to  it  systematic  form  and  literary  expression.  His 
followers  did  still  more.  The  writings  of  Episco- 
pius,  who  not  only  spoke  eloquently,  but  wrote 
ably  in  support  of  these  doctrines,  constitute  a  per- 
fect thesaurus  of  materials  for  Arminian  polemical 
purposes.  With  many  others  of  like  precious  faith, 
notably  Witenbogsert  and  Grotius,  he  suffered  much, 
including  exile  and  loss  of  estate,  on  behalf  of  the 
cause.  It  was  this  same  Episcopius,  a  Leyden  pro- 
fessor, first  a  pupil,  and  then  a  successor  of  Armin- 
ius, who  afterward  so  ably  represented  and  defended 
this  persecuted  faith,  at  the  famous  synod  of  Dort, 
where,  while  Calvinism  formed  a  fresh  statement, 
Arminianism,  or  the  "  Remonstrant  "  theology,  as  it 
was  thenceforth  called,  was  condemned,  and  was 
declared  to  be  a  vile  heresy,  and,  as  such,  was  to  be 
considered  outlawed,  and,  if  possible,  by  means  of 
political  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  penalties,  to  be 
stamped  out  of  existence. 

3.  Meantime,  the  man  who,  during  this  stormy 
period,  really  did  most  for  Arminianism,  from  a 
strictly  theological  point  of  view,  was  Phillippus 
Limborch,  the  author  of  "A  Complete  Body,  or  Sys- 
tem of  Divinity,  both  Speculative  and  Practical, 
founded  on  Scripture  and  Reason."  This  was  trans- 
lated into  English  by  Rev.  William  Jones,  and 
printed  in  London  by  John  Darby,  in  1713.     Tins 


388  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Phillip  Limborch  was  professor  of  Divinity  at  the 
Remonstrant  College,  at  Amsterdam,  and  his  work 
on  Systematic  Divinity  is  an  imperishable  monument 
of  learning,  and  is,  perhaps,  the  best  statement  of 
Arminian  theology  extant.  To  what  extent  this 
grand  work  of  the  united  Watson  and  Fletcher  of 
his  day  and  nation  may  have  been  studied  by  the 
early  Methodist  theologians,  while  giving  birth  and 
form  to  their  "  new  divinity,"  under  the  terrific  fire 
of  Calvinism,  I  am  unable  to  say.  I  am  frank  to  say 
that,  in  some  respects,  I  prefer  the  divinity  of  Lim- 
borch to  that  of  Watson.  It  is  more  intensely 
Arminian,  in  the  sense  of  making  moral  character, 
sin,  etc.,  absolutely  personal,  while  his  teachings 
generally  seem  to  me  clearer,  more  rational,  and  self- 
consistent,  and  less  tinctured  with  Calvinism,  than 
those  of  Richard  Watson.  Limborch  and  the  later 
Remonstrants  have  been  characterized  by  our  con- 
servative orthodox  Wesleyans  as  leaning  altogether 
too  much  towards  rationalism.  In  reality,  these 
Dutch  theologians  were  simply  a  little  ahead  of 
their  times.  The  late  Dr.  Whedon  shook  glad 
hands  with  every  one  of  them.  Take  a  single  point: 
the  English  Wesleyans,  from  Wesley,  Adam  Clarke, 
Richard  Watson,  and  Fletcher,  down  to  this  present, 
have  been  very  conservative,  in  fact,  Calvinistic,  on 
the  doctrine  of  sin,  insisting  that,  instead  of  guilt 
being  absolutely  personal,  it  can  be,  and  is,  trans- 
mitted from  Adam  to  all  his  posterity  forever. 
American  Methodists  have  been  less  uniform  in 
their  views  on  this  subject.     Only  a  small  minority, 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.        389 

however,  I  think,  will  at  present  be  found  to  hold 
and  teach  a  doctrine  of  sin  of  a  pronounced  Wesleyan 
type.  While  our  American  Methodism  really  has 
no  recognized  credenda  on  this  particular  point, 
doubtless  nearly  all  of  the  rising  generation  of  Meth- 
odist preachers  and  theological  professors  hold  that 
sin,  in  the  sense  of  involving  guilt  and  penalty,  and 
requiring  literal  atonement,  confession,  and  pardon, 
is,  and  must,  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  be  abso- 
lutely personal.  Now  let  us  turn  to  Limborch  (see 
Preface,  p.  14)  :  "The  current  opinion  of  the  Calvin- 
ists  and  Schoolmen  is  that  Adam's  sin  was  imputed 
to  his  posterity,  and  that  we  are  all  born  with  origi- 
nal guilt  about  us.  Now,  we  own,  to  be  sure,  that 
infants  are  born  with  a  less  degree  of  purity  than 
Adam  was  created  in ;  but  we  deny  that  this  corrup- 
tion is  sin."  In  the  body  of  his  great  work,  the 
author  elaborates  this  view,  maintaining,  and  this 
one  hundred  years  before  Wesley,  precisely  the 
doctrinal  position  on  this  subject  of  sin  occupied  by 
young  Methodism  in  America  to-day. 

4.  But  was  it  this  Arminianism  of  Arminius, 
Episcopius,  and  Limborch  that  finally  "unfettered 
the  mighty  soul  of  John  Wesley  "  ?  Whether  John 
and  Charles  Wesley  had,  or  had  not,  before  becom- 
ing Christians,  bestowed  much  critical  and  profound 
study  on  the  doctrinal  basis  of  their  faith,  may  we  not 
inquire ;  —  Did  not  the  same  truth  that  "unfettered" 
the  souls  of  the  Wesleys,  also  unfetter  the  great  soul 
of  Calvinistic  Whitefield,  of  Lady  Huntingdon,  and 
of  scores  of  other  Calvinistic  Methodists,  no  less 


390  CENTENNIAL   OF 

evangelical  or  spiritually-minded  than  were  the 
Wesleys  themselves?  No  amount  of  study,  devoted 
to  the  history  of  Christian  doctrine,  has  yet  revealed 
to  me  that,  previous  to  the  definite  shaping  of  his 
own  theology,  John  Wesley  had  ever  read  a  line  of 
the  writings  of  Arminius,  or  of  the  Remonstrant 
Theologians.  I  can  nowhere  find  that  he  anywhere 
acknowledges  any  personal  indebtedness  to  these 
elder  Arminians.  It  is  true  that  he  named  his  first 
considerable  periodical  The  Arminimi  Magazine,  and 
so  he  identifies  himself  with  that  school;  but  does 
he  anywhere  intimate  that  he  imported  from  Holland 
what  has  since  become  the  world-wide  Methodist 
theology,  and,  practically,  now  the  working  the- 
ology of  universal  evangelical  Christendom  ?  It  is 
one  of  the  strange  things,  not  easily  accounted  for, 
that  in  all  his  writings,  wliile  he  has  favored  us 
with  the  history  of  his  theological  opinions  in  refer- 
ence to  other  cardinal  points  of  his  system,  he  has 
left  us  little  or  nothing  to  shed  light  upon  this  point 
of  supremest  interest ;  nor  have  Methodist  historians 
and  biographers  of  Wesley  seemed  to  deem  it  a 
matter  of  great  moment  to  thoroughly  investigate 
this  subject.  From  the  few  hints  dropped  incident- 
ally by  Mr.  Wesley's  biographers,  we  reach  the 
conclusion  that  John  Wesley's  Arminianism  was 
practically  original  with  himself ;  i.e.,  he  obtained  it 
from  his  mother,  and  the  independent  and  prayerful 
study  of  the  word  of  God.  It  would  seem  tliat,  as 
early  as  1725,  wliile  reading  Thomas  a  Kempis  and 
Jeremy  Taylor,  in  the  interest  of  heart  purity,  he 


NEW  ENGLAND  JVIETHODISM.  3.91 

was  greatly  offended  by  incidental  expressions,  in 
the  works  of  these  authors,  denying  not  only  God's 
love  to  all,  but  the  privilege  of  living  in  a  state  of 
conscious  salvation.  He  writes  to  his  mother  rela- 
tive to  these  points.  She  promptly  replies,  taking 
the  strongest  possible  grounds  in  favor  of  the  doc- 
trines of  free  grace,  and  the  witness  of  the  Spirit. 
Wesley  at  once  and  most  cordially  acknowledges  the 
obvious  soundness  of  her  views ;  and  from  that 
time,  notwithstanding  the  general  prevalence  and 
popularity,  particularly  in  high  places,  of  the  Calvin- 
istic  doctrine,  John  Wesley  seems  never  to  have  had 
one  moment's  doubt  in  reference  to  the  orthodoxy, 
or  Scriptural  character,  of  the  doctrines  he  had  thus 
early  espoused.  Henceforth  the  characteristic  doc- 
trinal features  of  Wesleyan  Methodism  are  to  be  free 
salvation  and  the  witness  of  the  Spirit. 
I  close  with  two  observations :  — 

1.  Has  the  Methodist  Church,  even  yet,  meas- 
ured up  to  an  adequate  realization  of  its  indebted- 
ness to  Susanna  Wesley?  Has  it  realized  that 
Arminian  Methodism  had  its  original  inception  in 
the  heart  and  brain,  in  the  spiritual  life  and  sancti- 
fied common-sense,  of  the  mother  of  the  Wesleys? 

2.  Is  there  not  something  specially  impressive  and 
significant  in  the  fact  that  Wesley's  theology  was 
apparently  providentially  developed  ;  that,  instead  of 
its  having  been  laboriously  evolved  through  pro- 
tracted speculation,  or  lengthened  argumentation,  or 
controversial  conflict,  it  was  born  of  the  Spirit  in  his 
soul,  and  as  an  original  inspiration  fresh  from  the 
mind  and  heart  of  God  ? 


STEPHEN  OLIN,  D.D. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE  CELEBKATION  ON  THE  COIVIMON. 

On  July  11, 1790,  Rev.  Jesse  Lee,  unable  to  find 
a  public  or  private  building  in  Boston  in  which  he 
might  preach,  delivered  the  first  Methodist  sermon 
in  Boston  under  the  "  old  elm  "  on  the  Common.  It 
seemed  fitting  to  the  Boston  Preachers'  Meeting 
that,  one  hundred  years  afterward,  this  event,  of  such 
significance  to  our  beloved  Church,  should  be  com- 
memorated on  the  same  spot. 

.  Accordingly,  on  July  11,  the  young  sprout  from  the 
"  old  elm,"  itself  now  a  goodly  tree,  was  surrounded 
by  a  large  company  of  Methodists,  who  had  assem- 
bled to  celebrate  the  introduction  of  Methodism  into 
Calvinistic  New  England.  Since  the  substance  of 
much  that  was  said  on  that  occasion  may  be  found  in 
the  report  of  the  exercises  at  the  People's  Church, 
we  append  only  the  witty  and  appropriate  poem  com- 
posed and  read  by  Rev.  Alfred  J.  Hough,  pastor 
of  Trinity  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Montpelier, 
Vermont,  and  the  admirable  address  of  the  Rev.  L.  B. 
Bates,  D.D.,  of  East  Boston,  Mass. 

THE  AREOPAGUS  OF  JESSE  LEE. 

"We  are  in  Athens !    So  it  seems  to  us. 
This  is  Mars'  Hill  —  the  Areopagus. 

C393] 


894  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Yonder,  as  far  as  human  eye  can  see, 

Stretches  in  glory  the  iEgean  Sea; 

The  skies  above  us  wear  a  Grecian  hue, 

Soft,  tender,  deep  and  delicately  blue; 

The  market  is  the  same— its  noisy  ring 

Is  thronged  with  seekers  after  some  new  thing. 

The  towers,  the  toilers  with  the  spade  and  pen, 

"What  are  they  but  Athenian,  towers  and  men  ? 

It  would  not  seem  a  rude  surprise  to  meet 

The  noble  Socrates  on  any  street, 

Or  Phidias,  busy  as  in  days  of  old, 

Kearing  a  new  Athena,  clad  with  gold. 

The  scene  is  Attic  —  earth,  sky,  sea,  and  sun  — 

And  what  is  Bunker  Hill  but  Marathon  ? 

Hither  came  one  like  Taul,  long  years  ago, 
"Whom  no  one  knew,  and  none  desired  to  know; 
A  preacher  with  a  message  in  his  breast 
Grand  as  Paul  bore  the  Athens  of  the  "West, 
From  Alexandria  Troas;  shared  Paul's  fate, 
The  ostracism  of  religious  hate. 

All  doors  were  closed  against  him;  shunn'd  and  bann'd, 
He  walked  his  own  as  in  a  foreign  land. 
Grim  Orthodoxy  reared,  where'er  he  trod, 
A  massive  altar  to  an  Unknown  God, 
And  where  its  shadow  fell  he  found  no  space 
For  his  sweet  story  of  abounding  grace. 
'Twas  better  he  should  stand  outside  all  doors 
Of  human  fashioning,  on  God's  broad  floors, 
In  His  great  temple,  as  Paul  stood  that  day 
The  men  of  Athens  mocked  and  went  away. 

Up  to  the  shelter  of  this  elm  tree's  shade 
Kode  Jesse  Lee,  serene  and  undismayed; 
Fastened  his  steed  securely  to  a  limb, 
Bared  his  broad  brow,  stood  forth,  and  sung  a  hymn. 
The  soul  that  has  heaven's  message  full  and  clear 
"Will  speak  that  message  somew"here.    Lee  spoke  here. 
The  picture  of  that  apostolic  saint 
Apelles  would  have  loved  to  sit  and  paint. 
Smooth  was  his  face,  and  bronzed  by  sun  and  breeze; 
His  tightly  buttoned  coat  reached  to  his  knees ; 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  895 

In  lines  about  the  moutli  his  mind  had  wrought 

An  open  secret  of  its  inmost  thought. 

His  eyes  were  large,  and  seemed  to  throb  with  light, 

Like  far-off  stars  upon  a  windy  night. 

His  lips  had  strength  and  sweetness  in  their  curves; 

From  head  to  foot  he  seemed  all  soul  and  nerves; 

The  spiritual  tides  rose  in  his  frame  so  high 

There  was  but  little  left  of  him  to  die; 

Long  flaxen  locks  down  o'er  his  shoulders  strayed, 

And  when  he  sang  the  hymn,  and  as  he  prayed, 

The  little  group  that  gathered  round  him  drew 

The  nearer  to  his  side;  the  voice  was  new  — 

Magnetic,  tender,  human,  full  of  change, 

Now  soft,  now  loud,  and  of  the  amplest  range. 

The  hymn  o'erflowed  with  sovil  in  every  part. 

The  prayer  leaped  living  from  a  great,  warm  heart, 

And  when  the  sermon  honored  God's  vast  plan, 

Time-circling  in  its  sweep,  to  rescue  man  — 

The  little  children  borne  safe  home  above. 

The  vilest  sinner  sought  in  pitying  love, 

The  heathen  world  wrapt  in  its  wide  embrace  — 

The  people  knew  why  in  the  preacher's  face 

The  churches  shut  their  doors :  they  bowed  the  knee 

To  iron  law  and  merciless  decree. 

Narrowed  God's  love  to  an  elective  plan. 

And  Calvinized  the  glorious  Son  of  Man. 

The  hour  had  come.     God  found  His  servant;  sent 
Him  to  this  place,  as  Paul  to  Athens  went, 
Kepeating  here  that  one  transcendent  page 
Of  Attic  history  in  a  later  age. 
Music,  and  art,  and  culture,  sea  and  sky, 
Conspire  to  group  before  the  mental  eye 
That  master-scene  in  Paul's  sublime  career. 
All  the  Athenian  elements  were  here. 
This  Common  was  Mars'  Hill,  and  this  elm  tree 
The  Areopagus  of  Jesse  Lee  ! 
As  Paul  at  Athens  did  —  The  Unknown  God, 
Revealing  with  one  sermon-stroke  he  made 
Full-rounded  Truth.    The  revelation  stayed  — 
Here  he  declared  upon  this  sacred  sod  — 


396  CENTENNIAL  OF 

On  earth  —  a  cross,  wide,  deep  as  sin  had  grown; 
In  heaven  —  a  rainbow  round  about  the  throne; 
The  human  will,  free  as  the  light  that  streamed: 
The  Spirit's  witness  in  a  soul  redeemed; 
A  life  of  perfect  love  o'ercoming  fear — 
That  was  the  revelation  Lee  made  here! 
And  this  elm  tree,  from  root  to  spreading  limb, 
Became  a  bush  on  fire  that  day  to  him. 
'Tis  fitting  we  should  crown  as  best  we  can 
That  epoch-making  sermon  and  the  man, 
Our  great  apostle:  on  this  spot  of  earth 
New  England  Methodism  had  its  birth, 
Pure  as  the  light  that  filled  its  natal  day, 
Free  as  the  winds  that  bore  its  voice  away. 
Broad  as  the  heavens  that  arched  its  cradle  o'er. 
Grand  as  the  sea  that  broke  on  yonder  shore, 
Growing  in  beauty  as  the  years  sweep  by, 
A  hardy,  out-door  plant  that  will  not  die. 

Skeptics  may  doubt  and  pessimists  may  sneer, 
The  Avorld  has  moved  since  Jesse  Lee  preached  here. 
And  could  our  great  apostle  tread  once  more 
New  England's  Athens,  every  church's  door 
Would  welcome  his  approach ;  the  full  and  free 
Salvation  he  proclaimed  beneath  this  tree 
"Would  greet  his  ear  and  thrill  his  noble  heart, 
And  he  would  know  that  he  had  borne  some  part 
In  bringing  near,  and  bearing  far  abroad, 
A  gospel  worthy  of  the  Son  of  God, 
And  cry,  perhaps,  in  one  of  his  death-strains: 
"Glory,  glory,  hallelujah  I  Jesus  reigns  I" 
The  name  of  Athen's  poet,  warrior,  sage, 
May  fail  to  keep  on  the  historic  page, 
Forever  it  will  shine,  undimmed  and  fair. 
Because  St.  Paul  once  preached  a  sermon  there. 
And  till  Mars'  Hill  shall  fade,  remembered  not, 
New  England  Methodism  to  this  spot 
Will  turn  with  loving  eyes,  and  to  this  tree 
Where  her  Pauline  apostle,  Jesse  Lee, 
Stood  forth  redeemed,  in  manhood's  highest  worth, 
And  preached  the  sermon  that  announced  her  birth. 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  397 

Tour  poet's  lines,  like  those  of  Cleanthes, 
Will  only  live  because  of  scenes  like  these. 
Some  Raphael  must  arise  to  paint  for  us, 
Lee,  preaching  on  the  Areopagus 
Of  this  new  Athens,  under  some  vast  dome, 
As  Raphael's  Paul  stands  preaching  now  in  Rome. 

HISTORICAL  STATEMENT. 

KEV.  L.  B.  BATES,  D.  D. 

Boston's  Old  Elm,  that  fell  during  the  great  gale 
of  February  15,  1876,  had  been  standing  here  for 
an  unknown  period.  It  was  called  "  Boston's  oldest 
inhabitant."  The  tree  belonged  to  a  species  of  the 
Elm  family  known  as  the  American,  or  white  elm, 
which  is  much  admired  and  cultivated  abroad  for  its 
gracefulness  of  growth.  In  the  descriptions  of  it, 
given  in  books  and  papers,  by  the  older  inhabitants 
of  Boston,  it  has  always  been  called  the  "Great 
Tree  ";  but  the  infirmities  of  age,  and  the  memorable 
associations  connected  with  it,  have  by  common  con- 
sent changed  the  majestic  to  the  venerable,  and, 
during  the  last  fifty  years  of  its  life,  it  was  univer- 
sally called  the  "  Old  Elm." 

Before  Washington  or  Winthrop,  the  tree  was. 
Before  Blaxton  bought  ground  of  the  Indians, 
before  Trimountain  or  Shawmut  was  the  name  of 
Boston  ;  when  Chickatawbut  was  Chief  Sachem,  and 
sat  with  his  council  in  the  shade  of  the  trees,  the 
great  elm  stood  forth  in  the  light  of  the  sun.  It 
was  a  patriarch  among  all  the  trees  of  its  kind,  on 
the  coast  of  New  England.  The  associations  con- 
nected with  the   Old   Elm   have   put   it   to   almost 


S98  CENTENKIAL  OF 

every  use  under  the  sun,  from  a  gibbet  of  infamy  to 
a  "  Liberty  Tree "  of  the  Revolution.  Under  the 
law  which  banished  Quakers  from  the  Colonies,  and 
punished  them  with  death  if  they  returned,  William 
Robinson  and  Marmaduke  Stevenson  were  convicted, 
and  hanged  on  the  Common,  probably  upon  this 
tree.  Mary  Dyar,  who  was  reprieved  through  the 
intercession  of  her  son,  after  her  foot  was  on  the 
fatal  ladder,  only  escaped  to  meet  a  similar  fate 
the  next  year ;  and  "  the  lifeless  forms  of  Margaret 
Jones,  of  Annie  Hibbins,  and,  perhaps,  other  victims  of 
judicial  murder,  may  have  depended  from  these  same 
limbs,  during  the  reign  of  the  witchcraft  horrors." 

The  late  Samuel  G.  Drake,  Esq.,  in  his  "  History 
of  Boston,"  narrates  an  early  incident  connected 
with  the  history  of  this  tree.  The  incident  occurred 
July  27,  1676.  He  says:  "Another  of  the  Nip- 
muck  Sachems,  called  '  Sagamore  John,'  influ- 
enced about  one  hundred  and  sixty  Indians  to 
surrender  at  Boston.  One  among  them.  Old  Ma- 
toonas,  he  brought  in  by  force,  being  bound  with 
cords.  He  was  immediately  condemned  to  death; 
for  he  was  not  only  father  of  him  who  was  hung  in 
Boston  several  j^ears  before,  but  he  was  charged 
with  being  the  first  to  commit  murder  in  Massachu- 
setts Colony  in  this  war.  His  betrayer,  '  Sagamore 
John,'  was  desirous  that  he  and  his  men  might  be 
the  executioners ;  wherefore  Matoonas  was  carried  out 
into  the  Common,  and  being  tied  to  a  tree  (doubtless 
the  Old  Elm),  they  then  shot  him  to  death." 

Very  near  the  Powder  House,  which  also  stood  in 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  399 

close  proximity  to  the  tree,  on  the  third  of  July, 
1728,  occurred  the  duel  between  Benjamin  Wood- 
bridge  and  Henry  Phillips,  young  men  of  the  highest 
respectability,  who  both  loved  and  lost  the  young 
lady  for  whom  they  fought.  Woodbridge  was  thrust 
through  with  a  sword,  and  left  dead  upon  the  field, 
while  Phillips  was  hurried  out  of  the  country.  This 
affair  led  to  the  enactment  of  the  well-known,  but 
none  too  rigid.  New  England  law  upon  duelling. 

During  the  struggle  of  the  Colonies  for  indepen- 
dence, the  neighborhood  of  the  Great  Elm  was  one  of 
places  of  resort  for  the  "  Sons  of  Liberty,"  who  fre- 
quently caused  the  tree  to  be  illuminated  with  lan- 
terns on  evenings  of  rejoicing,  and  on  festal  occasions. 
It  also  served  for  the  exhibition  of  popular  feelings 
of  indignation,  for  many  a  Tory  was  hung  in  effigy 
from  its  branches.  Perhaps  it  in  this  way  acquired 
the  name  "  Liberty  Tree,"  which  it  bore  in  1774,  the 
tree  originally  bearing  that  name  having  been  taken 
down,  as  it  is  designated  on  a  map  of  Boston, 
engraved  that  year. 

The  Rev.  Jesse  Lee  gave  to  the  tree  a  religious 
association,  in  fitting  contrast  to  the  deeds  of  bigotry 
and  persecution,  enacted  in  the  name  of  religion, 
when  the  great  elm  served  no  higher  purpose  than 
a  gallows  for  the  innocent.  Long  enough  had  the 
"  Lord  poured  out  his  fury  upon  the  trees  of  the  field, 
that  they  should  burn  and  not  be  quenched,"  as  the 
people  so  sacrilegiously  imagined  it.  We  therefore 
date  a  new  era,  and  a  period  of  better  things,  from 
the  evening  of  Sunday,  July  11th,  1790. 


400  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Jesse  Lee  was  born  in  Prince  George's  County, 
Virginia,  in  1758.  In  his  fifteenth  year  he  was  con- 
verted, and  united  with  the  Methodist  society.  At 
nineteen  years  of  age  he  was  a  class  leader  in  North 
Carolina,  and  shortly  afterwards  began  to  exhort. 
He  was  licensed  to  preach  while  in  attendance  at  a 
Conference  in  Virginia.  He  thus  speaks  of  the 
scene :  "  The  union  and  brotherly  love  which  I  saw 
among  the  preachers  exceeded  everything  I  had  ever 
seen  before,  and  caused  me  to  wish  I  was  worthy  of 
a  place  among  them.  When  they  took  leave  of  each 
other,  I  observed  that  they  embraced  each  other  in 
their  arms,  and  wept  as  though  they  never  expected 
to  meet  again.  Had  heathens  been  there  they 
might  well  have  said,  '  See  how  these  Christians  love 
one  another  ! '  " 

Impressions  received  at  that  Conference  induced 
him  to  join  the  itinerancy.  Before  tlie  end  of  the 
year  he  was  on  his  way  to  North  Carolina,  with  a 
colleague,  to  form  a  new  and  extensive  circuit.  The 
next  year  he  was  regularly  appointed  to  labor  in 
that  State,  and  being  now  fully  in  the  sphere  of  his 
duty,  he  was  largely  blessed  with  the  comforts  of 
divine  favor,  and  went  through  the  extensive  rounds 
of  his  circuit  "like  a  flame  of  fire." 

About  this  time,  while  on  a  visit  to  Charleston, 
South  Carolina,  he  heard  something  of  the  religious 
condition  of  New  England,  from  a  citizen  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  became  at  once  deeply  desirous  of 
preaching  the  gospel  in  New  England.  But  the  way 
did  not  open  until  the  summer  of  1789,  when  we  find 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  401 

him  preaching  his  first  sermon  at  Norwalk,  Conn.,  on 
June  17th.  He  continued  preaching  in  various  parts 
of  Connecticut  until  the  fall,  when  he  returned  to 
his  Southern  home. 

Early  in  the  summer  of  1790,  we  find  him  again  in 
New  England.  On  the  ninth  of  July  he  enters  Bos- 
ton, and  at  once  "seeks  a  place  where  he  might 
publish  the  word  of  salvation ;  but  every  effort  was 
fruitless."  For  two  days  he  ])ersistently  pressed 
his  petitions  upon  an  indifferent  people,  meeting  here 
and  there  a  threatening  opposition.  Finally,  turning 
from  the  churches,  he  determined,  like  Whitfield 
before  him,  to  go  into  God's  first  temples  and  preach 
under  the  trees.  Accordingly,  he  gave  notice  on 
Saturday  of  his  intention  to  preach  on  the  Common 
on  the  afternoon  of  the  ensuing  Sabbath.  A  few 
friends  were  found  ready  to  go  with  him,  two  of 
whom  carried  a  table  for  his  platform  or  pulpit. 
The  table-bearers  were  Joseph  Snelling  and  Thomas 
Restieaux,  both  of  whom  afterwards  became  mem- 
bers of  the  first  Methodist  society  organized  in  Bos- 
ton. The  former  was  also  the  first  to  enter  the 
Methodist  ministry  from  that  society.  He  lived  for 
many  years,  a  useful  and  effective  preacher.  He 
labored  for  a  time  in  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church,  but  later  came  back  to  tlie  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  "to  die  among  his  brethren."  He 
often  delighted  in  recalling  this  early  association 
with  Lee,  and  the  fact  that  he  witnessed  the  entrance 
of  Washington  into  Boston,  at  the  end  of  the  siege, 
when  the  British  had  withdrawn. 


402  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Thomas  Restieaux  lived  a  faithful,  Christian 
life,  and  died  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Alley 
Church. 

When  Jesse  Lee  preached  here  one  hundred 
years  ago,  a  carpenter  loaned  him  a  table,  which  he 
used  as  a  platform.  The  table  used  for  a  platform 
to-day  was  made  expressly  for  that  purpose  by  the 
carpenters  of  Meridian-street  Bethel,  East  Boston,  and 
will  be  presented  to  the  New  England  Methodist 
Historical  Society. 

At  the  time  appointed  Lee  found  but  few 
persons  present;  but  he  took  his  stand  upon  the 
table,  and  began  to  sing  a  ^lethodist  hymn  —  a  never- 
failing  experiment  in  calling  the  people  near. 
Then,  kneeling  before  his  congregation,  he  offered  a 
simple  but  fervent  prayer.  One  who  was  present 
says,  "  When  he  entered  upon  the  subject  matter  of 
his  text,  '  Ye  must  be  born  again  '  (John  3 :  7),  it 
was  with  such  an  easy  and  natural  flow  of  expression, 
and  in  such  a  tone  of  voice,  that  I  could  not  refrain 
from  weeping,  and  many  others  were  affected  in  the 
same  way.  When  he  was  done,  and  we  had  an 
opportunity  of  expressing  our  views  to  each  other,  it 
was  agreed  that  such  a  man  had  not  visited  New 
England  since  the  days  of  Whitfield.  I  heard  him 
again,  and  I  thought  I  could  follow  him  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth."  It  was  estimated  that  between  two 
thousand  and  three  thousand  people  gave  quiet  and 
solemn  attention  to  his  warning  voice. 

A  Boston  paper  of  that  date  contains  the  follow- 
ing: "On  Sunday  evening  last,  as  a  Huntingtoniau 


NEW   ENGLAND   IMETHODISM.  403 

Methodist  preacher  was  holding  forth  to  a  large  con- 
course of  people,  assembled  by  the  novelty  of  the 
circumstance  on  the  Common,  he  took  occasion  to 
observe  that  he  who  professed  repentance  without 
faith,  was  like  a  man  rowing  a  boat  in  troubled 
waters  with  one  oar.  '  This  man,'  said  he,  '  must  go 
over  first  on  one  side,  and  then  on  the  other,  but  will 
never  get  ahead.'  On  which  a  sailor,  one  of  the 
audience,  said  pretty  audibly,  with  an  oath,  '  Why, 
then,  don't  he  scull  ?  '  " 

No  intimation  is  given  that  the  preacher  replied, 
but  no  man  would  have  been  more  likely  than  he  to 
reply,  for  his  ready  wit  was  known  in  all  the 
churches.  In  after  years,  when  a  single  vote 
defeated  his  election  to  the  Episcopacy,  it  was  said 
that  he  was  "too  full  of  wit  and  humor  for  the 
bishopric."  When  this  came  to  his  ears,  he  responded 
that  it  would  not  be  natural  to  assume  the  gravity  of 
the  office  before  receiving  it.  "  Put  me  in,"  said  he, 
"  and  I  will  sustain  its  dignity." 

Few  men  possessed  more  power  over  an  audience 
than  Lee.  As  long  as  he  was  refused  admission  to 
the  churches  in  Boston,  he  continued  his  ministry 
to  the  crowds  on  the  Common.  Lynn  had  opened 
her  doors,  and  extended  to  him  a  welcome.  Yet, 
with  all  the  persistency  of  the  Woman  who  pleaded 
with  the  unjust  judge,  and  with  all  confidence  in  the 
ultimate  and  triumphant  success  of  his  preaching,  he 
remained  in  Boston  until  God  opened  one  of  the 
alleys  in  the  town,  and  the  people  permitted,  and 
even  assisted,  him  to  build  a  house  of  worship  there. 


404  CENTENNIAL   OF 

Much  of  the  money  for  building,  however,  lie  begged 
in  Southern  cities,  and  brought  it  to  the  builders 
with  his  own  hands. 

The  long  line  of  continuous  Methodist  history  in 
this  city,  therefore,  began  at  or  near  this  spot,  and  to 
Jesse  Lee  must  be  ascribed  the  origin  of  Methodism 
in  New  England.  When  this  first  sermon  was 
preached  here,  Wesley  was  yet  alive^and  Methodism 
possessed  little  or  none  of  the  worldly  power  which  it 
has  to-day.  Boston  had  less  than  twenty  thousand 
inhabitants,  and,  instead  of  the  State  House,  the  old 
monument  stood  in  front  of  the  preacher  on  Beacon 
Hill.  There  were  only  seventeen  cliurches  in  town, 
and  the  travel  to  New  York  was  by  stage,  the  journey 
consuming  four  days  a;nd  four  nights. 

After  one  hundred  years,  Boston  has  nearly  three 
hundred  churches  and  about  75,000  church  members, 
and  the  licrhtningf  trains  take  us  from  Boston  to  New 
York  in  about  five  hours.  New  England  has  to-day 
hundreds  of  churches,  and  more  than  600,000  church 
members.     "  What  hath  God  wrouglit !  " 

Jesse  Lee  entered  New  England  in  1789,  a  solitary 
stranger.  When  he  died,  in  1817,  it  was  traversed 
by  more  than  one  hundred  itinerant  ministers.  He 
formed  its  first  Methodist  class,  of  three  members. 
When  lie  fell,  Methodist  societies  dotted  the  land  from 
Long  Island  to  Canada,  and  from  New  York  to  New 
Brunswick. 

When  he  joined  the  Church,  it  comprised  less 
than  twelve  hundred  members,  and  ten  preachers. 
When  he  died,  it  reported  more  than  two  hundred 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  405 

and  fourteen  thousand  members,  and  nearly  seven 
hundred  preachers. 

Jesse  Lee  continued  for  a  number  of  years  as  an 
itinerant  between  the  South  and  the  North,  the  kst 
ten  years  of  his  life  being  spent  in  the  Middle  and 
Southern  States.  In  the  summer  of  1808  he  paid  his 
last  visit  to  New  England.  On  the  23rd  of  July  he 
preached  in  Lynn,  and  met  with  a  cordial  Avelcome. 
On  the  29th,  he  preached  at  Portsmouth,  N.H.  On 
he  moved,  down  into  Maine,  crossing  the  Penobscot 
and  the  Kennebec,  preaching  nearly  every  day  and 
evening.  In  his  journal  he  says  :  "  I  spent  forty- 
three  days  in  Maine,  preaching  forty-seven  sermons." 
From  New  Hampshire  he  returned  to  Lynn  and  Bos- 
ton. Bidding  his  disciples  farewell,  he  hastened  to 
his  summer  home.  The  last  eight  years  of  his  life  he 
spent  chiefly  in  the  South.  During  this  time  he  was, 
for  a  number  of  years.  Chaplain  in  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States. 

On  the  24th  of  August,  1816,  he  was  present  at  a 
camp  meeting  held  in  Hillsboro,  on  the  eastern  shore 
of  Maryland,  where  he  preached  his  last  sermon  from 
2  Pet.  3  :  18  ;  "  But  grow  in  grace."  The  congrega- 
tion was  much  moved  by  his  preaching.  At  the  close 
he  was  taken  ill,  and  gradually  failed,  until  Sept.  12, 
when  he  died.  Among  his  last  words  were  these: 
"  Glory,  glory,  glory,  hallelujah  !   Jesus  reigns !  " 

"  Oh  liappy,  happy  soul! 
In  ecstasies  of  praise, 
Long  as  eternal  ages  roll, 
Thou  seest  thy  Saviour's  face. 


406  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Redeemed  from  eartli  and  pain, 

Ah!  when  shall  we  ascend, 
And  all  in  Jesus'  presence  reign 

With  our  translated  friend?  " 

On  Sunday  evening,  July  11,  1875,  while  the  Old 
Elm  was  still  standing,  the  eighty-fifth  anniversary  of 
Jesse  Lee's  preaching  on  Boston  Common  was 
observed  with  religious  services. 

Three  times  has  Jesse  Lee  been  buried.  His  dust 
now  rests  in  the  Methodist  Cemetery  of  Baltimore. 
On  July  11,  1876,  the  monument  given  by  New  Eng- 
land Methodists  was  placed  above  his  grave,  with 
appropriate  services. 

From  July  11,  1790,  to  July  11,  1890,  it  is  said 
that  religious  services  have  been  held  each  year,  near 
this  spot,  conducted  by  some  itinerant  Methodist 
preacher.  I  am  certain  that  a  Methodist  preacher 
has  preached  here  each  year  for  the  last  twenty -five 
years. 

Fathers,  brothers,  sisters,  sons  and  daughters; 
Let  us  preach  the  same  gospel.  First ;  Redemption 
provided  through  Jesus  Christ.  Second  ;  Whosoever 
will  may  be  saved  from  his  sins.  Third ;  All  may 
have  the  witness  of  the  Spirit.  Fourth:  Purity  of 
heart,  holiness  of  life,  a  godly  conversation.  Fifth  ; 
The  second  coming  of  Christ,  to  judge  the  world  in 
righteousness.  Sixth  ;  The  resurrection  of  the  dead, 
and  the  final  judgment  of  all  men  ;  homes  in  the 
infinite  glory  for  all  tlie  faithful;  banishment  from 
the  presence  of  God  and  the  glory  of  his  power  for 
the  finally  impenitent. 


KEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  407 

Let  us  preach  these  old  doctrines,  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  moving  us,  as  he  moved  the  Fathers,  and  one 
hundred  years  from  to-day  our  sons  shall  see  Amer- 
ica Christianized,  and  the  gospel  of  our  Christ 
prevailing  everywhere  on  our  globe. 

Our   Year    Book   for   1890   gives   the   following, 
viz. :  — 

Methodist  Church  Members  on  this  continent,   5,053,926 

In  the  world, 6,331,112 

Methodist  population  of  the  world, 30,000,000 


FATHER  TAYLOR. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

FATHER  TAYLOR. 

Fujiyama  is  the  sacred  mountain  of  Japan.  It 
is  not  a  part  of  any  range.  Tradition  says  that  it 
was  raised  in  a  single  night.  Rearing  its  head  more 
than  twelve  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea, 
it -stands  distinctly  outlined  against  the  sky.  Some- 
times clouds  crown  its  head.  Sometimes  the  gold  of 
sunset  makes  for  it  a  glorious  background.  It 
presents  so  many  different  aspects,  as  the  atmos- 
pheric conditions  change,  that  people  greet  one 
another  with  the  question,  "Have  you  seen  Fuji  to- 
day ?  "     It  is  always  unique,  impressive,  grand. 

Such  was  Father  Taylor  among  men.  The  story 
of  New  England  Methodism  cannot  be  fully  told 
without  a  sketch  of  his  character  and  life,  because  it 
is  possible  to  train  and  use  such  a  man  only  by  a 
theology  as  broad,  and  a  system  as  flexible,  as  the 
theology  and  system  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church, 

Born  in  Richmond,  Va.,  December  25,  1793,  he 
had  no  knowledge  of  his  parents.  At  seven  years  of 
age  he  ran  away  with  a  sea-captain,  who  had  asked 
him  if  he  did  not  wish  to  be  a  sailor.  When  a  boy 
of  seventeen,  he  was  providentially  landed  in  Boston, 
where  he  was  converted  to  God,  through  the  preach- 

[409] 


410  CENTENNIAL  OP 

ing  of  Rev.  Elijah  Hedding,  afterwards  the  Bishop, 
the  blessed  influence  of  whose  memory  is  yet  with 
us. 

Embarking  shortly  afterward  upon  a  privateer, 
he  was  captured  by  the  British,  and  finally  landed 
in  Dartmoor  Prison.  At  the  request  of  his  fellow- 
prisoners,  the  chaplain,  who  had  been  appointed  to 
minister  to  them,  was  relieved  of  that  duty,  and  that 
work  was  given  into  Taylor's  hands.  Here  began 
that  marvellous  career,  which  culminated  in  a  world- 
wide fame.  When  he  was  released  from  prison,  the 
question  of  his  life-work  was  settled. 

Shortly  after  his  return  to  this  country,  he  was 
licensed  to  preach  by  the  quarterly  conference  of  the 
Bromfield  Street  Church,  in  Boston.  For  a  number 
of  years  he  worked  at  various  occupations,  preaching 
on  Sundays,  and  doing  his  best  to  remedy  the 
defects  in  his  education.  We  can  hardly  forbear 
telling  the  story  of  those  years,  so  full  were  they  of 
hard  work  and  persistent  effort. 

In  the  spring  of  1817,  Amos  Binney  sent  him  to 
Newmarket  Seminary,  the  only  Methodist  school  in 
America.  Here  he  remained  only  six  weeks,  the 
presiding  elders  pressing  him  into  service.  His  first 
station  was  Marblehead,  where  he  married  Deborali 
Millett,  who  exercised  a  strong  and  wholesome  influ- 
ence upon  this  untutored  genius. 

In  1819  he  joined  the  New  England  Conference, 
which  then  covered  all  the  New  England  States,  and 
numbered  a  few  more  than  one  hundred  members. 
He  was  sent  to  Scituate  Circuit.     Our  younger  min- 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  411 

isters  may  be  interested  to  know  that  this  circuit 
included  the  following  towns:  Scituate,  Hingham, 
Cohasset,  Hull,  Hanover,  Marshfield,  Duxbury, 
Plympton,  Hanson,  Pembroke,  Weymouth,  Quincy, 
Dorchester.  This  appointment  was  followed  by 
others,  in  various  parts  of  Massachusetts,  until  1829, 
when  he  was  sent  to  Boston  to  take  charge  of  a 
chapel  which  the  Methodists  wished  to  have  used 
in  the  interest  of  sailors. 

He  had  been  successful  in  his  various  pastorates, 
but  here  he  began  his  true  life-work.  The  little 
chapel  soon  became  too  small ;  and  the  "  Seamen's 
Bethel"  was  erected  in  1833,  principally  through  the 
benevolence  of  the  merchants  of  the  city.  Here  he_ 
held  absolute  sway  until  1868,  when  failing  health 
compelled  him  to  relinquish  control,  at  least  nomi- 
nally. 

No  words  can  do  justice  to  the  character  of  this 
wonderful  man,  or  to  his  wonderful  preaching. 
Indeed,  to  describe  his  preaching  would  be  to  de- 
scribe his  character,  since  his  personality  found  its 
fullest  expression  in  his  pulpit  work.  He  was  majes- 
tic in  all  his  proportions.  His  heart  was  large  and 
warm ;  his  mind  was  clear  afid  active ;  his  sympa- 
thies and  antipathies  were  strong,  and  found  free 
expression;  he  was  as  gentle  as  a  woman,  as  brave 
as  a  grizzly  bear,  and  as  arbitrary  as  a  Czar. 

During  all  of  his  ministry  in  Boston,  the  Bethel 
was  a  centre  about  which  universal  interest  revolved. 
His  love  compassed  the  communicants  of  all  denom- 
inations, without  in  any  degree  weakening  his  loyalty 


412  NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM. 

to  the  truth,  as  it  found  expression  in  the  belief  of 
his  own  people.  Wit,  sarcasm,  pathos, — in  fact, 
every  play  of  human  mind,  —  found  expression  in  his 
speech.  Sailors  worshipped  him ;  the  cultured  ad- 
mired him,  and  went  to  hear  him  preach ;  all  believed 
in  him  and  loved  him.  Conferences  were  convulsed 
by  his  sharp  sayings,  or  moved  to  hallelujahs  by  his 
eloquence.  His  like  was  never  seen  in  the  world, 
and  never  will  be.  More  nearly  than  any  other  man, 
did  he  embody  the  devotion,  freedom,  and  consecra- 
tion of  Methodism. 

It  was  just  at  the  turn  of  the  tide,  in  the  dark  of 
that  midnight  morning,  April  6,  1871,  that  his  spirit 
floated  off  "  this  bank  and  shoal  of  time,"  and  made 
the  happy  harbor  for  which  he  had  so  long  and  faith- 
fully sailed.! 

1  In  the  preparation  of  this  short  sketch,  the  editor  has  made  free 
use  of  "  Father  Taylor,  the  Sailor  Preacher,"  by  Gilbert  Haven  and 
Thomas  Russell. 


H 

OQ 

CO 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

WESLEYAN   UNIVERSITY. 

The  history  of  the  origin  and  growth  of  Wes- 
leyan  University  has  been  often  told.  Each  decade, 
however,  brings  forward  a  generation  of  young  peo- 
ple to  whom  this  history  is  entirely  new.  That  it  is 
called  for  again  is  certainly  a  favorable  omen,  inas- 
much as  the  <»ealization  of  the  future  of  Weslej^an 
is  largely  dependent  upon  the  knowledge  and  appre- 
ciation each  generation  has  of  what  it  has  done  and 
what  it  can  do. 

On  its  material  side  its  history  is  much  like  that  of 
most  denominational  colleges,  —  a  history  of  small 
beginnings,  of  great  discouragements,  and  of  con- 
stant struggle  with  poverty.  Chartered  in  the  year 
1831,  and  opening  its  doors  to  receive  students  on 
the  21st  of  September  of  that  year,  an  inventory  of 
its  outfit  would  have  shown  property  valued  at 
thirty  thousand  dollars,  and  an  endowment  pledged 
of  four  thousand  dollars.  An  inventory  at  this  hour 
would  show  buildings,  grounds,  and  apparatus  valued 
at  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  an  endowment 
just  above  one  million  dollars.  Its  library  of  thirty- 
eight  thousand  volumes,  laboratories,  and  observa- 
tory, well  equipped,  and  its  faculty  numbering  in 
all  twenty-one,  place  it   in  the   front   rank  among 

[415] 


416  CENTENNIAL  OF 

American  colleges.  No  one  can  tell  the  story  of  the 
sacrifices,  the  prayers,  and  the  heroic  giving,  that 
have  entered  into  the  struggle  to  carry  Wesley  an  on 
to  this  hour.  It  may  now  be  assumed  that  she  has  a 
"  physical  basis  of  life  "  that  warrants  the  largest 
hopes  for  a  most  vigorous  future. 

President  Bradford  P.  Raymond  was  born  in 
Stamford,  Conn.,  April  22,  1846.  He  graduated  at 
Lawrence  University  in  the  class  of  1870,  and  after 
a  course  in  theology  at  Boston  Theological  School, 
served  six  years  as  pastor  in  the  New  England 
Southern  Conference.  After  a  year  of  study  abroad, 
and  during  the  third  year  of  a  pastorate  in  Nashua, 
N.  H.,  he  was  called  to  the  presidency  of  his  alma 
mater.  Here  he  remained  six  years.  He  was  elected 
to  the  presidency  of  Wesleyan  in  December,  1888, 
and  took  up  the  work  in  September,  1889,  at  the 
opening  of  the  college  year. 

We  cannot  stop  to  call  the  roll  of  honor.  But  as 
we  turn  to  look  at  the  inner  life  of  Wesleyan,  we 
mention  the  names  of  two  men  prominent  in  the 
earliest  years  of  her  history.  In  the  college  library 
may  be  seen  "  the  outfit  in  which  he  [Rev.  Laban 
Clark,  D.D.]  used  to  ride  his  early  circuit  —  saddle- 
bags, whip,  and  homespun  suit — deposited  in  a 
chest  made  from  the  wood  of  the  first  Methodist 
church  in  America."  Methodism  had  done  its  work 
on  horseback  up  to  this  hour.  These  sacred  relics, 
as  they  lie  here  in  state,  mark  the  hour  of  transition 
from  the  old  to  the  new.  Dr.  Clark,  like  the  true 
prophet,  foresees  the  exigencies  of    the  time.     The 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  417 

qualities  of  the  young  denomination  are  to  be  put 
to  the  test.  The  permanence  of  its  work  must  be 
assured  by  the  establishment  of  permanent  institu- 
tions, and  especially  of  educational  institutions. 
The  early  itinerant  in  his  homespun  habit  ("  Solo- 
mon in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of 
these  ")  on  horseback  was  not  the  symbol  of  perma- 
nence. Learning  that  the  military  academy  located 
in  Middletown  could  be  purchased,  he  immediately 
made  himself  responsible  for  the  money,  carried  the 
matter  before  the  Church,  secured  the  needed  help, 
and  well  may  be  called  the  "  father  of  Wesleyan 
University." 

The  name  of  the  first  president,  Wilbur  Fisk, 
must  also  be  mentioned.  When  Cokesbury  College 
burned  in  1795,  Asbury  wrote  to  a  friend,  saying  : 
"  The  Lord  called  not  the  Methodists  to  build  col- 
leges." More  than  twenty-five  years  elapsed  before 
anything  was  done  to  meet  the  demands  of  higher 
education.  The  people  were  generally  of  the  opin- 
ion that  there  was  more  evil  than  good  in  the  colleges. 
The  students  of  the  various  colleges  of  New  Eng- 
land were  nearly  all  unbelievers.  Dr.  Fisk's  mother 
warned  him,  as  he  valued  his  soul,  against  entering 
the  educational  work.  And  yet,  rising  above  all 
the  discouragements,  with  clearest  insight  and  sub- 
lime faith  in  the  gospel,  he  insisted  that  these  schools 
ought  to  be  the  very  centre  of  revival  influences. 
As  one  reads  his  life,  he  could  easily  believe  him  to 
be  a  man  living:  in  the  ninth  rather  than  the  fourth 
decade  of   this  century.     He   sees   clearly  that   the 


418  CENTENNIAL  OF 

great  desideratum  in  a  college  is  the  great  teacher. 
The  consideration  he  gave  to  the  natural  sciences 
and  the  modern  languages,  his  theory  of  govern- 
ment, and  his  idea  of  the  religious  possibilities  of 
the  college,  show  him  to  have  been  untrammelled, 
broad-minded,  and  clear-headed.  He  fought  the 
battle  with  poverty  and  with  prejudice  and  fear  for 
Wesleyan  University,  and  died  with  this  prayer  on 
his  lips  :  "  Oh,  if  I  could  feel  that  our  people  —  our 
brethren  in  the  ministry  —  were  alive  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  University,  how  it  would  cheer  my 
departure ! " 

His  central  idea  was,  that  the  highest  culture  and 
the  deepest  piety  must  be  wedded  in  these  educa- 
tional institutions  of  the  Church.  This  thought 
appears  again  and  again  in  his  writings,  and  among 
the  memorable  words  of  his  last  days  were  these  : 
"Education  must  go  hand  in  hand  with  religion,  or 
the  world  will  never  be  converted  without  a  direct 
miracle  from  God." 

Wesleyan  has  been  one  of  the  most  conservative 
of  our  colleges.  It  was  not  easy  to  bring  the  minds 
of  either  trustees  or  faculty  to  the  changes  that 
must  come.  Dr.  Curry,  the  great  editor,  massive 
and  mighty,  did  not  take  kindly  to  any  modification 
of  the  curriculum.  It  was  a  very  hesitating  vote 
that  admitted  women  to  the  privileges  of  the  college. 
New  departures  in  the  line  of  schools  of  law,  medi- 
cine, and  theology  were  early  proposed  to  President 
Fisk,  but  were  not  favored.  They  were  too  expen- 
sive.    And  yet  changes  have  been  going  on.     The 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  419 

work  in  science  has  been  extended  ;  elective  work  is 
liberally  provided  for  in  the  last  two  years  of  the 
course ;  the  young  ladies  are  here,  in  their  own 
home,  and  are,  demonstrating  every  day  the  wisdom 
of  the  vote  which  opened  the  halls  of  Wesleyan  to 
them.  The  work  done  at  Wesleyan  has  always  been 
thorough,  and  of  a  high  grade.  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  limitations  in  appliances,  the  standard  has 
been  high  from  the  first.  Located  in  the  midst  of 
the  best  colleges  of  New  England,  it  was  necessary 
to  keep  her  requirements  well  to  the  front  along 
with  these  colleges.  And  although  the  number  of 
students  has  never  been  large,  —  the  average  of  her 
classes  being  twenty-seven,  —  she  has  exercised  a 
most  potent  influence,  especially  through  the  schools 
and  pulpits  of  the  denomination,  for  the  best  work. 
Her  graduates  have  given  more  than  six  thousand 
years  of  service  as  teachers.  There  is  scarcely  an 
institution  in  the  denomination  that  is  not  indebted 
to  Wesleyan  for  traditions,  methods  and  teachers. 
She  has  gone  into  all  the  world  through  her  alumni, 
urgent  ever  with  demands  for  the  best  work,  and 
stubborn  in  adherence  to  those  demands.  She  has 
given  to  the  world  not  less  than  ten  thousand  years 
of  ministerial  work.  These  results  are  not  such  as 
can  be  weighed  on  hayscales,  or  made  apparent  to 
the  senses ;  but  they  are  the  most  real,  the  most 
enduring  and  valuable  by  far,  that  any  institution 
has  given  or  can  give  to  the  world.  They  justify 
the  faith  of  Fisk  in  the  schools  of  the  Church.  The 
steady  growth  of  her  classes  from  six  in  1833  to 


420  CENTENNIAL   OF 

forty-five  in  1886,  like  that  in  buildings,  in  libraiy,  in 
faculty  and  endowment,  —  and  this  notwithstanding 
the  multiplication  of  schools  of  every  grade  in  the 
denomination,  and  notwithstanding  her  rigid  adher- 
ence to  purely  college  work,  —  and  the  growing  influ- 
ence of  her  alumni,  especially  in  the  schools  and  the 
pulpit,  show  the  quality  of  her  work  in  the  past,  and 
warrant  the  highest  hopes  for  the  future. 

What  of  the  future  ?  As  the  preparatory  schools 
made  the  college  a  necessit}^  so  have  the  colleges 
made  the  university  a  necessity ;  and  into  that  field 
of  higher  work,  so  attractive  and  so  full  of  promise  for 
the  future,  both  of  the  State  and  the  Church,  Wesleyan 
is  about  to  enter.  She  is  just  becoming  conscious  of 
her  powers,  and  is  delighted  with  the  prospect  of  a 
free  use  of  them.  Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  any- 
thing will  be  rashly  done.  She  believes  in  evolution 
—  of  a  certain  type  —  rather  than  revolution,  and 
proposes  to  provide  the  conditions  for  the  best  work 
possible  in  the  lines  she  will  take  up.  During  the 
present  year  there  has  been  quite  a  large  number  of 
applications  for  post-graduate  work.  For  such  as 
are  ready  to  do  resident  work,  courses  will  be  laid 
out  and  be  carried  out.  Several  such  applicants  are 
at  hand,  and  will  take  work  in  biology  and  chemis- 
try. Actual  demands  for  resident  work  will  be  met. 
Facilities  will  be  provided  as  the  demands  grow,  in 
all  the  lines  of  work  belonging  to  the  "  philosophical 
faculty,"  as  understood  in  the  division  of  labor  in 
the  German  university ;  and  the  history  of  the  past 
is  the  warrant  offered  for  the  work  of  the  future. 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  421 

The  recent  gift  by  Dr.  Ayers  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  the  movement  initiated 
by  the  trustees  to  add  another  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars  to  that  sum,  have  inspired  new 
life,  and  awakened  among  all  the  friends  of  the 
institution  the  largest  hopes  and  very  great  activity 
for  the  realization  of  these  hopes.  The  alumni  were 
never  so  influential  as  now,  the  trustees  never  so 
coij^dent,  the  appliances  never  so  adequate,  the 
endowment  never  so  great.  Some  improvements 
will  be  made  this  year.  Provisions  for  heating  all 
the  buildings  from  one  plant  are  under  consideration. 
A  new  dormitory,  new  gymnasium,  and  a  hall  for 
chemistry  and  biology,  are  among  the  demands  that 
must  be  met  in  the  near  future.  By  faith  we  see 
these  buildings,  now  growing  to  beautiful  and  stately 
proportions,  and  by  faith  we  dedicate  them  to  the 
ideal  of  President  Fisk,  to  the  cause  of  humanity 
and  the  triumph  of  Christianity.  To  this  good  work 
Wesleyan  welcomes  all  coadjutors  that  strive  for  the 
realization  of  that  sublime  ideal. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

BOSTON   UNIVERSITY. 

Just  twenty  years  ago  last  May,  Boston  Univer- 
sity was  chartered.  The  record  of  these  two  decades 
has  had  its  shadows, 'but  as  a  wliole  it  may  be 
doubted  if  the  history  of  tlie  higher  education  in 
America  anywhere  presents  a  success  more  brilliant. 
To  the  management  of  the  Herald  ^  it  has  seemed  emi- 
nently fitting  that  here,  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
twentieth  year,  some  sketch  of  the  progress  and 
achievements  of  the  University  should  be  laid  before 
our  patrons  and  the  general  public.  The  more  we 
have  investigated  the  documents  and  the  facts,  in 
the  preparation  of  this  sketch,  the  stronger  has  the 
conviction  grown. 

The  founders  of  Boston  University  were  three 
remarkable  men :  The  Honorable  Lee  Claflin,  a  sen- 
ator of  the  State,  a  man  whose  wise  charities  reached 
to  every  part  of  the  country  if  not  to  every  part  of 
the  world,  was  the  first  to  propose  and  urge  upon 
his  brethren  the  establishment  of  a  college  in  the 
New  England  metropolis.  Isaac  Rich,  Esq.,  a  man 
who,  in  his  line  of  business,  came  to  hold  the  very 
first  place  in  the  United  States,  a  man  of  faultless 

1  See  Preface. 
[422] 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  423 

proportions,  vivacious  air,  and  admirable  judgment, 
was  the  first  to  pledge  to  the  enterprise  his  fortune 
and  to  utter  the  creative  fiat.     The  Honorable  Jacob 
Sleeper,  grave,  wise,  genial,  handsome,  experienced 
in  educational  administrations,  gentle  as  a  child,  yet 
immovable  as  a  rock,  was  the  providential  man  to 
add  to  the  gifts  of  the  others  and  to  guard   and 
strengthen  the  original  foundations.     Closely  allied 
with  these  was  the  son  of  the  first,  the  Honorable 
William  Claflin,  who  as  Governor  of  the  Common- 
wealth approved  and  signed  the  original  charter  of 
th^  University,  and  who  as  most  important  member 
of  its  Corporation  has  for  twenty  years  borne  the 
burdens  and  cares  of  its  presidenc3^     The  debt  of 
the  University  to  his  generous  and  effective  support 
cannot  here  and  now,  if  ever  or  anywhere,  be  fully 
set  forth.     Quite  as  little  is  it  possible  to  state  the 
relative  influence  of  Gilbert  Haven,  of  David  Patten, 
of  John  H.  Twombly,  and  other  trusted  counsellors, 
in  the  shaping  of  the  views  of  the  founders  and  in 
bringing  them  to  the  ultimate  and  decisive  action. 
Suffice  it  to  say,  that  it  was  a  group  of  royal  souls  in 
the  midst  of  which  the  University  was  born,  and  that 
to  them,  as  by  a  spiritual  elective  affinity,  other  royal 
souls  have  been  drawn,  who  in  hours  of  need  and 
peril  have  shown  a   generosity,  a   courage,   and   a 
loyalty  which  the  founders   themselves   could   not 
easily  have  surpassed. 

In  the  midst  of  this  group  stands  the  educator 
whose  mature  life  has  been  wrought  into  the  very 
fabric  of  the  institution.     Though  we  have  not  sue- 


424  CENTENNIAL   OF 

ceeded  in  obtaining  permission  to  sketch  his  life 
and  work,  we  shall  tell  no  secrets  if  we  say  that 
President  Warren  is  Massachusetts-born,  a  gradu- 
ate of  Wesleyan  University  in  tlie  class  of  *53,  a 
member  of  the  New  England  Conference,  and  now 
in  his  fifty-seventh  year.  To  take  any  part  of  the 
space  remaining  for  the  present  sketch  of  the  insti- 
tution, for  the  sake  of  devoting  it  to  a  fuller  account 
of  the  University's  first  and  only  President,  we  are 
'strictly  forbidden  ;  and  in  view  of  all  which  remains 
to  be  said,  we  yield  for  the  present  to  the  restrictions 
imposed.  , 

What,  then,  is  the  story  of  these  twenty  years? 
What  has  been  accomplished  through  the  agency  of 
the  new  University? 

First  of  all,  more  than  two  thousand  men  and 
women  have  been  trained  for  the  higher  professions 
and  callings  in  life,  and  have  taken  their  places  as 
educated  leaders  in  human  society.  Large  as  this 
number  is,  it  does  not  include  the  many  who,  from 
failure  of  health  or  want  of  funds,  failed  to  complete 
the  studies  they  had  undertaken.  The  more  than 
two  thousand  are  graduates  in  full  and  regular  stand- 
ing, and  they  are  scattered  widely  through  the 
world.  Yesterday  a  letter  arrived  from  India,  giv- 
ing account  of  a  just  held  alumni  reunion  in  that  far- 
off  country,  and  stating  that  fourteen  were  present. 
This  week  the  faculty  have  had  reminders  from  other 
representatives  in  Japan,  Korea,  and  Ciiili.  Call 
at  Massachusetts  State  House,  and  in  the  Executive 
Council  you  shall  find  one,  in  the  Senate  another,  iu 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  425 

the  House  of  Representatives  eleven.  Last  summer 
one  of  them  was  made  president  of  the  oldest  Meth- 
odist University  in  the  world ;  another,  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  earth,  was  made  president  of  the  new- 
est. These  are  specimen  facts  simply,  and  they 
could  be  greatly  multiplied. 

Again,  a  new  and  original  type  of  university 
organization  has  been  initiated,  and  in  the  measure 
of  its  age  exemplified.  This  fact  is  not  as  widely 
known  as  it  will  be  fifty  years  from  now.  Far-reach- 
ing principles  are  embodied  in  the  inmost  structure 
of  this  institution — principles  which  at  the  time  of 
its  organization  had  never  been  incorporated  in  a  liv- 
ing university,  at  least  in  the  combination  here 
attempted.  At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Beta  Chapter 
of  the  university  Convocation,  the  President,  on 
invitation,  instanced  and  expounded  some  of  them ; 
but  the  subject  is  too  vast  for  adequate  treatment  in 
the  present  paper.  In  a  history  of  education  in 
Massachusetts,  soon  to  be  published  by  the  United 
States  Government,  some  fuller  statements  and  illus- 
trations may  be  expected.  Suffice  it  here  to  state  — 
what  President  Warren  has  elsewhere  said  —  that 
"with  its  prospective  system  of  co-ordinate  under- 
graduate Colleges,  its  diversified  yet  co-ordinated 
and  interordinated  Faculties  of  professional  and 
other  post-graduate  instruction,  and  finally,  with  its 
all-unifying  Convocation  and  Senate,  Corporation 
and  Council,  the  University  presented  to  the  world 
a  unique  type  of  university  organization,  structurally 
symmetrical  and  perfectly  articulated  at  the  start, 


426  CENTENNIAL  OF 

yet  capable  of  greater  progress  in  comprehensiveness, 
witli  accompanying  growth  in  unity,  than  any  that 
had  ever  before  been  seen."  In  view  of  this  fact,  it 
has  been  studied  with  great  attention  by  all  organ- 
izers of  the  more  recent  American  universities,  and 
even  by  the  professional  educators  and  scholastic 
administrators  of  the  Old  World. 

Again,  more  than  any  other  of  its  age  or  re- 
sources it  has  uplifted  the  standard  of  professional 
education  throughout  the  United  States.  At  the 
time  of  its  organization  there  was  not  a  thoroughly 
respectable  law  school  in  this  country.  In  many  the 
course  of  instruction  was  less  than  one  scholastic 
year;  in  none  did  it  exceed  two.  In  the  Harvard 
University  Law  School  the  entire  instruction  was 
given  by  three  persons.  As  President  Eliot  has 
often  stated,  there  was  no  examination  for  admission, 
none  for  promotion  to  the  second  3^ear's  standing, 
none  for  graduation.  Even  this  meagre  and  testless 
course  was  not  graded, —  that  is  to  say,  was  not 
arranged  according  to  any  rational  or  pedagogical 
order  of  subjects.  In  many  other  schools  in  different 
parts  of  the  country,  the  instruction  offered  was  in 
quality  and  quantity  inferior  even  to  that  maintained 
in  Cambridge.  In  many  of  them  attendance  upon 
two  lectures  a  day  for  six  months,  and  a  prompt 
payment  of  fees,  secured  the  only  honors  or  advan- 
tages they  could  offer. 

The  projectors  of  Boston  University  believed  it 
time  for  an  advance  movement.  At  the  outset, 
therefore,  they  adopted  statutes  of  organization  pro- 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.        427 

viding  for  a  course  of  instruction  scientifically  graded 
and  extending  through  three  scholastic  years.  They 
also  organized,  as  teachers  of  it,  a  larger  and  abler 
faculty  than  any  other  in  the  country.  Strict  exam- 
inations at  every  stage  of  the  student's  progress 
established  public  confidence  and  gave  value  to  the 
professional  degree.  As  a  result,  a  few  years  later, 
the  good  example  was  followed  at  Cambridge ;  and 
at  present  two  or  three  other  American  schools  are 
adjusted,  or  are  about  to  adjust  themselves,  to  the 
new  order. 

Similar  facts  could  be  stated  respecting  medical 
education.  The  state  of  this  branch  of  professional 
training  resembled  that  of  the  legal  branch.  The 
Boston  University  School  of  Medicine  was  the  first 
in  the  country  to  present  in  due  combination  all 
elements  essential  to  a  radical  reform.  It  enume- 
rated and  illustrated  them  in  its  early  circulars.  A 
paper  entitled,  "  Hopeful  Symptoms  in  Medical  Edu- 
cation," published  in  volume  sixth  of  the  "Univer- 
sity Year  Book,"  startled  and  stimulated  every  medi- 
cal faculty  in  the  country.  The  School  was  the  first 
to  offer  four  years'  courses  in  medicine  and  surgery, 
and  to  revive  the  long-lost  baccalaureate  degrees. 

So  in  the  theological  field.  It  is  not  generally 
known  that  the  School  of  Theology  was  the  first  in 
this  country  to  make  the  historic,  systematic,  and 
philosophic  study  of  the  religions  of  all  peoples 
and  of  all  ages  an  integral  and  permanent  part  of 
the  theological  curriculum.  It  makes  a  like  claim 
with  respect  to  systematic,  comprehensive,  and   con- 


428  CENTENNIAL   OF 

tiiiuous  instruction  upon  the  subject  of  Christian 
Missions.  To  this  day  Harvard  gives  its  theological 
degree  to  men  who  have  no  knowledge  of  the  origi- 
nal language  of  the  Old  Testament.  Boston  Univer- 
sity has  never  given  so  much  as  a  certificate  of 
graduation  to  any  candidate  who  had  not  completed 
the  regular  three  years'  couise  in  that  sacred  tongue. 
This  same  theological  school  was  the  first  to  place  in 
a  second  division  in  every  class  all  students  whose 
preliminary  academic  degrees  were  inferior  to  a  solid 
baccalaureate  in  arts,  or  were  lacking  altogether ; 
and  the  first  to  restrict  the  first'theological  degree  to 
students  successfully  completing  the  full  three  years' 
curriculum  in  the  first  division.  It  was  also  the 
first  to  utilize  upon  a  large  scale  the  best  lecturing 
ability  of  the  whole  country,  whatever  the  special 
communion  of  the  lecturer. 

Desi)ite  —  or  shall  we  rather  say  in  consequence 
of?  —  these  new  and  exacting  regulations,  the  Univer- 
sity, in  the  number  of  its  professional  students, 
quickly  distanced  the  only  two  others  which  at  that 
time  maintained  the  three  corresponding  faculties. 
The  aggregates  of  the  professional  students  at  New 
Haven,  Cambridge,  and  Boston  for  the  four  years 
1874-1878  were  as  follows :  — 

YALE.       HARVARD.       BOSTON. 

In  1874-75 206  351  352 

In  1875-76 217  372  414 

In  1876-77 191  436  440 

In  1877-78 193  422  425 

Totals 807  1581  1631 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  429 

From  which  it  appears  that  the  aggregate  in  Bos- 
ton University  was  fifty  more  than  Harvard's,  and 
was  more  than  double  the  entire  aggregate  of  Yale's. 
Of  course  a  showing  of  this  kind  was  alarming  in 
the  extreme  to  the  time-honored  leaders  of  New 
England  education.  It  called  for  fresh  plans  and 
larger  resources  and  higher  ideals ;  and  if  the  new 
millions  of  money  which,  since  1878,  have  been  se- 
cured for  Yale  and  Harvard,  have  enabled  them  to 
make  a  somewhat  better  relative  showing,  both  the 
millions  and  the  improved  showing  are  in  no  small 
degree  ascribable  to  the  brave  leadership  and  friendly 
stimulation  of  their  younger  metropolitan  sister. 

Our  assigned  space  is  exhausted,  leaving  as  yet 
unnoticed  what  many  are  wont  to  consider  the  best, 
or  among  the  best,  of  the  results  of  these  twenty 
years.  The  establishment  of  a  living  and  positive 
and  powerful  evangelical  leaven  in  the  heart  of  Bos- 
ton's culture ;  the  improved  tone  and  spirit  of 
metropolitan  and  New  England  Methodism ;  the 
newly  created  opportunity  to  develop,  by  life-long 
teaching,  great  and  renowned  teachers  in  all  depart- 
ments of  human  knowledge ;  the  honor  of  creating 
the  first  University  ever  organized  from  foundation 
to  capstone  without  irrational  and  unjust  discrimi- 
nations; the  gallant  services  of  the  institution  in  the 
recent  contest  between  Harvard  and  the  other  New 
England  colleges  with  respect  to  the  A.B.  degree ; 
the  unique  charm  of  life  in  the  College  of  Liberal 
Arts ;  the  unexampled  possibilities  of  the  School  of 
All  Sciences;    the   developed  and  daily-developing 


430  NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM. 

vitality  and  power  and  promise  of  the  whole  compre- 
hensive organization;  the  concurrently  developing 
needs  in  every  part  and  department  —  all  these  are 
essential  constituents  of  the  record  which  must  here 
be  left  unfinished.  Fortunately  the  readers  of  the 
Herald  have  not  now  heard  from  the  institution 
for  the  last  time. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

BAST  JSIAINE   CONFERENCE   SEMINARY. 

The  East  Maine  Conference  held  its  first  session 
in  1848,  and  this  question  was  prominent:  Shall  we 
establish  a  Conference  Seminary?  Some  were  of 
opinion  that  the  funds  which  should  be  available  for 
the  project  had  already  been  placed  at  the  disposal 
of  the  seminary  of  the  Maine  Conference.  Some 
believed  that  the  State  could  sustain  but  one  semi- 
nary of  a  high  grade.  Discouragements  were  many. 
But  the  wide  territory  comprehended  by  the  Confer- 
ence, the  absence  of  competition  within  its  bounds, 
the  impossibility  of  persuading  attendance  of  pupils 
at  a  school  remote  from  their  homes,  and  above  all 
the  necessity  of  a  school  peculiarly  identified  with 
the  Conference  —  these  were  arguments  so  strong  as 
to  overcome  all  objections.  Twenty-four  trustees 
were  there  appointed,  who  held  their  first  meeting 
in  Bangor,  Aug.  8,  1848.  Asahel  Moore  was  chosen 
president,  and  W.  H.  Pilsbury,  secretary.  A  year 
later,  in  consideration  of  a  proposition  made  by 
David  Higgins  in  behalf  of  the  citizens  of  Bucksport, 
who  agreed  to  donate  in  lands  and  otherwise  to  the 
amount  of  twenty-five  hundred  dollars,  and  further 
influenced  by  the  beauty  and  convenience  of  the 
location,  the  trustees  voted  to  erect  a  Seminary  in 

[433] 


•134  CENTENNIAL  OP 

that  village.  How  humble  was  the  project  may  be 
seen  from  a  clause  in  the  charter  which  authorizes 
the  trustees  to  hold  property  "the  annual  income  of 
which  shall  not  exceed  three  thousand  dollars." 

A  brick  building  for  chapel  and  recitation-rooms 
was  completed  in  1851.  Rev.  Loren  L.  Knox  was 
elected  principal,  and  Miss  Jane  Johnston  precep- 
tress, and  the  school  was  opened  Aug.  20  of  that 
year.  The  faculty  consisted  of  Mr.  Knox  and  Miss 
Johnston ;  the  students  numbered  thirteen  gentle- 
men and  fourteen  ladies. 

It  was  soon  evident  that  without  a  boarding-house 
the  effort  would  be  a  failure,  and  a  plan  was  formed 
to  raise  $25,000  for  erecting  a  boarding-house  and 
endowing  the  school.  To  secure  this  sum,  743  schol- 
arships were  sold,  covering  an  aggregate  of  over 
31,500  terms  of  instruction,  at  a  price  ranging  from 
11.11^  .to  |0.66f  per  term.  That  is,  the  trustees 
agreed  to  provide  free  tuition  to  a  term  average  of 
over  four  hundred  students  during  a  period  of  twenty- 
five  years !  The  funds  thus  secured  were  sufficient 
to  construct  the  building,  but  left  no  endowment 
with  which  to  make  good  the  pledges  of  instruction. 
Failure  followed,  and,  in  1856,  the  seminary  closed 
its  doors. 

In  1858,  at  the  Annual  Conference,  Rev.  Ammi 
Prince  was  appointed  financial  agent,  with  instruc- 
tions to  raise  $5,000  to  meet  immediate  liabilities, 
and  $25,000  for  a  permanent  fund.  In  1859  the 
agent  reported  that  he  had  deposited  with  the  treas- 
urer pledges  and  certificates  of  deposit  to  the  amount 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  435 

of  $25,000,  and  the  seminary  was  re-opened.  From 
this  time  forward,  the  rigid  economy  in  management 
and  the  devotion  of  a  corps  of  teachers,  overworked 
and  underpaid,  would  have  secured  the  institution 
against  financial  embarrassment  except  for  the  exist- 
ence of  the  scholarships,  which  increased  in  value  as 
the  school  prospered.  In  1883,  because  drafts  from 
the  endowment  were  endangering  tlie  existence  of 
the  school,  Rev.  Mr.  Prince  was  again  appointed 
agent.  His  labors  resulted  in  re-establishing  the 
endowment,  and  in  securing  the  surrender  of  nearly 
all  the  scholarships.  With  this  achievement  the 
immediate  dangers  which  threatened  the  school  were 
removed,  and  its  permanence  is  assured. 

The  foundations  of  the  school  were  laid  with 
many  prayers,  much  self-denial,  and  an  earnest  con- 
viction of  the  duty  of  providing  a  thorough  and  sys- 
tematic course  of  training.  Its  support  has  been 
maintained  by  the  strenuous  efforts  of  men  and 
women  who  have  sacrificed  as  they  have  given.  The 
institution  has  never  received  any  large  donation. 
It  is  noticeable  that  from  the  beginning  it  has  chiefly 
depended  upon  the  efforts  of  the  members  of  the 
Conference,  men  of  large  hearts  and  small  incomes, 
who  have  set  a  noble  example  while  they  have  soli- 
cited the  contributions  of  the  churches,  that  the 
annual  deficits  might  be  honorably  met.  These 
deficiencies  have  hot  been  due  to  extravagance,  but 
to  a  recognition  of  the  demands  of  the  times  for  in- 
creasing facilities  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  young 
men  and  women  whose  culture  depended  upon  the 
privileges  here  furnished. 


436  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Principal  Chase  was  born  in  Woodstock,  Me.,  in 
1842  ;  prepared  for  college  by  himself  and  at  Kent's 
Hill ;  was  graduated  from  Wesleyan  University  in 
1869;  received  the  degree  of  Ph.D.  from  Colby  Uni- 
versity ;  joined  the  Maine  Conference  in  1872,  and 
was  transferred  to  the  East  Maine  Conference  in 
1884.  His  work  as  an  instructor  covers  about 
twenty-five  j'ears,  two  of  which  were  at  Wilbraham, 
twelve  at  Kent's  Hill,  and  six  in  his  present  position  ; 
the  other  years  were  in  the  public  schools  of  Maine, 
Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut. 

Since  the  re-opening  of  the  school,  the  principals 
have  been :  Mr.  R.  P.  Bucknam,  1859  to  1863 ;  Rev. 
James  B.  Crawford,  1863  to  1869;  Mr.  M.  F.  Arey, 
1869  to  1872;  Rev.  George  Forsyth,  1872  to  1881; 
Rev.  Morris  W.  Prince,  1881  to  1884 ;  Rev.  A.  F. 
Chase,  1884  to  the  present  time.  Miss  Eliza  A. 
Flanders  was  preceptress  from  1859  to  1861 ;  Miss 
ElmiraLowder,  1861  to  1864 ;  Miss  Calista  C.  Meader, 
1864  to  1869;  Miss  Etta  C.  Stone,  1869  to  1873; 
Miss  Jennie  C.  Donnell,  1873  to  1877  ;  Miss  Malvina 
Trecarten,  1877  to  1879  ;  Miss  Emma  O.  Pratt,  1879 
to  1881  ;  Miss  Amanda  M.  Wilson  was  elected  in 
1881,  and  retains  the  position. 

No  sketch  of  this  school,  however  brief,  should 
omit  its  representation  in  the  late  civil  war.  From 
the  "War  Record  of  the  Seminar}',"  as  prepared  by 
N.  B.  Webb,  it  appears  that  286  of  her  pupils  served 
in  either  the  army  or  the  navy.  This  comprehends, 
in  enlisted  men,  of  the  male  students  above  nineteen 
years  of  age  who  were  connected  with  the  school 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  437 

from  its  opening  until  1865,  no  less  than  thirty-five 
per  cent ;  a  fact  which  is  a  just  cause  for  pride. 

Not  many  years  ago,  a  venerable  woman,  in  mak- 
ing her  will,  gave  her  savings  to  this  school  "  because 
so  many  students  were  there  converted."  In  this 
idea  appears  the  highest  occasion  of  the  school's  suc- 
cess. The  spirit  of  the  founders  still  exists  in  its 
religious  life.  Earlier  statistics  are  lacking,  but  dur- 
ing the  past  six  years  within  its  walls,  over  two  hun- 
dred students  have  begun  a  Christian  life. 

Any  questions  whicli  arose  at  the  outset  regarding 
the  need  of  an  East  Maine  Conference  Seminary, 
have  been  fully  answered  in  the  work  it  has  already 
accomplished.  The  various  departments  of  instruc- 
tion are  in  good  hands.  The  lines  of  study  are 
extended  so  as  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  times.  The 
labors  of  the  teachers,  encouraged  and  supplemented 
by  the  pastors  of  tlie  churches  and  other  friends, 
have,  during  the  past  few  years,  developed  an  extraor- 
dinary increase  in  attendance.  In  1884  the  aggre- 
gate attendance  was  291 ;  in  1885,  344  ;  in  1886,  402; 
in  1887,  478 ;  in  1888,  491  ;  in  1889,  526.  It  is  safe 
to  say  that  few  similar  institutions  can  show  such 
progress.  This  increase  is  largely  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  young  people  of  limited  means,  in  Eastern 
Maine,  find  they  can  obtain  at  this  seminary  first-class 
privileges  at  a  low  expense.  The  students  are  enthusi- 
astic to  give  the  school  a  good  name,  to  increase 
attendance,  and  to  furnish  a  satisfactory  basis  for 
soliciting  endowment. 

Visitors   are    impressed   with    the    maturity   and 


438  NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM. 

excellent  deportment  of  the  students,  and  the  sur- 
passing beauty  of  the  location  and  of  the  surround- 
ing scenery.  Nature  has  performed  her  share  in 
furnishing  opportunities  for  every  educational  and 
moral  privilege.  At  the  same  time,  there  is  a  demand 
for  more  instructors ;  the  boarding-house  should  be 
enlarged ;  tlie  recitation-rooms  are  small  in  size, 
insufficient  in  number,  and  imperfectly  furnished ;  a 
part  of  the  recitations  are  held  in  a  building  rented 
from  the  town  and  remote  from  the  boarding-house  ; 
the  students  have  three  flourishing  literary  societies, 
and  should  have  permanent  quarters  adapted  to  their 
interests;  the  cabinets  are  extensive,  but  are  so 
crowded  they  cannot  yield  proper  benefits;  a  library 
of  neai'ly  four  thousand  volumes  and  a  large  assort- 
ment of  current  papers,  magazines,  and  reviews  have 
no  suitable  room  for  their  arrangement  and  use;  the 
grounds  need  extension  and  ornament;  the  chapel 
has  for  many  terms  failed  to  accommodate  more  than 
three-quarters  of  the  pupils  at  religious  or  other  ser- 
vices, and  is  altogether  inadequate  to  answer  to 
the  needs  of  this  growing  school.  In  spite  of  these 
disadvantages,  the  growth  continues.  Here  is  a 
pressing  demand  for  such  an  endowment  as  shall 
guarantee  to  the  future  of  this  Seminary  a  constantly 
increasing  power  for  good. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

MAINE   WESLEYAN   SEMIKARY. 

The  educational  movement  which  resulted  in  the 
Maine  Wesleyan  Seminary,  originated  in  the  minds 
of  two  excellent  men,  who,  at  about  the  same  time 
and  independently  of  each  other,  conceived  the  idea 
of  a  Christian  school.  One  of  these  men  was  Elihu 
Robinson,  a  Methodist  class-leader  of  Augusta,  who, 
in  1820,  established  a  boarding-school  in  his  own 
home.  The  other  was  Luther  Sampson,  a  farmer  of 
Kent's  Hill,  who,  in  1821,  was  one  of  five  incor- 
porators of  the  Readfield  Religious  and  Charitable 
Society,  and  donated  to  it  "  about  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars in  real  and  personal  estate."  The  objects  of 
this  society  were  numerous ;  but,  in  1823,  it  was 
specified  that  a  part  of  this  gift  should  be  appropri- 
ated to  the  purposes  of  a  school  on  Kent's  Hill.  In 
February,  1824,  at  the  urgent  solicitation  of  Mr. 
Sampson,  Mr.  Robinson  removed  his  school  from 
Augusta  to  Kent's  Hill,  into  a  boarding-house  that 
had  been  erected,  and  assumed  the  general  manage- 
ment of  the  institution.  In  December  of  the  same 
year,  by  a  new  act  of  incorporation,  the  school  took 
the  name  of  "  Maine  Wesleyan  Seminary." 

The  institution  opened  as  a  manual-labor  school, 
the  young  men  being  allowed  to  pay  the  most  of 

[441] 


442  CENTENNIAL   OF 

their  expenses  in  labor  on  the  farm  or  in  the  shops. 

This  feature  brought  a  large  attendance,  but  brought, 
also,  financial  ruin.  Unskilled  labor  could  not  be 
made  remunerative ;  and  after  a  trial  of  some  twelve 
years,  the  system  was  abandoned.  The  income  still 
continued  to  fall  below  the  expenses  until  1840, 
when  the  crisis  came.  The  school  was  bankrupt ;  all 
its  alienable  property  was  sold  for  the  benefit  of  its 
creditors,  and  still  several  thousand  dollars  were  left 
unpaid.  In  1844  Rev.  D.  B.  Randall  was  appointed 
agent,  and  succeeded  in  cancelling  the  debts  of  the 
institution  and  in  raising  funds  for  a  new  Seminary 
buildii)g.  In  1853  an  effort  was  begun,  with  Rev. 
S.  Allen,  D.D.,  as  agent,  to  raise  funds  for  a  new 
boarding-hall.  After  a  long  and  discouraging  strug- 
gle, this  enterprise  was  crowned  with  success,  by  the 
erection, -in  1860,  of  Sampson  Hall,  the  present  capa- 
cious boarding-hall.  In  1871  the  stately  Bearce  Hall 
took  the  place  of  the  former  Seminary  building; 
and  in  1883,  Blethen  Hall,  an  elegant  president's 
liome,  appeared  upon  the  campus. 

It  will  be  instructive  to  notice  some  points  in  the 
history  of  this,  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  successful 
of  our  schools. 

1.  It  was  conceived  by  laymen,  and  has  been 
blessed  to  an  unusual  degree  by  the  counsels  and 
benefactions  of  laymen.  Prominent  among  these 
are  Luther  Sampson,  Reuben  B.  Dunn,  Samuel  R. 
Bearce,  Eliphalet  Clark,  and  William  Deering,  with 
others  perhaps  equally  generous  and  wise.  The 
largest  share  of  its  present  wealth  has  come  from  the 
large  gifts  of  a  small  number  of  laymen. 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  443 

2.  It  has  had,  from  the  first,  the  hearty  co-opera- 
tion of  the  mii)isters  and  churches  of  the  Maine 
Conference,  and  has  availed  itself  of  the  services 
of  the  best  scholarship  to  be  found  in  Maine  Meth- 
odism. 

3.  The  most  important  force  in  the  success  of  the 
school  has  been  the  genius  of  one  man  —  Rev.  H. 
P.  Torsey,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  who  became  its  principal  in 
1843,  the  dark  days  of  bankruptcy  and  ruin,  and 
continued  in  the  ascendency  until  the  days  of  great- 
est triumph  were  past,  in  1871,  and  was  not  com- 
pelled, by  failing  health,  to  retire  until  1882,  thus 
completing  thirty-eight  years  of  remarkable  useful- 
ness. But,  while  the  internal  affairs  of  the  scliool 
were  so  ably  managed  by  Dr.  Torsey,  its  external 
interests,  among  the  churches  and  the  general  public, 
were  promoted  with  almost  equal  ability  by  Dr. 
Stephen  Allen.  Happy  the  institution  that  has  two 
so  powerful  friends ! 

4.  The  success  of  the  school  has  been  largely  due 
to  its  high  standard  and  aggressive  spirit.  It  early 
gained  "a  reputation  for  thorough  scholarship" — a 
reputation  that  secured  to  it  a  liberal  patronage  even 
in  the  days  of  financial  ruin,  and  which  it  has  jeal- 
ously guarded,  and  with  like  results,  until  tlie  present 
time.  It  was  among  the  first  schools  of  like  grade 
to  establish  courses  of  study,  and  to  present  diplomas 
to  its  graduates.  As  early  as  1830,  a  department  for 
women  was  opened.  In  1860  this  became  a  women's 
colleofe  —  the  first  college  in  Maine,  and  one  of  the 
first  in   New  England,  to  confer  regular  collegiate 


444  CENTENNIAL   OF 

degrees  upon  women.     Special  departments  in  music 
and  art  were  also  added  at  an  early  date. 

It  was  manifest,  from  the  first  intimation  of  a 
change  in  the  presidency,  that  the  mantle  of  Dr. 
Torsey  should  fall  on  some  one  who  combined  with 
the  ripe  scholarshij)  and  other  general  qualities  re- 
quired in  such  a  place,  acquaintance  with  the  work- 
ings of  this  particular  school.  Tliis  was  best  to  be 
found  in  a  graduate,  educated  under  Dr.  Torsey,  and 
capable,  if  any  man  could  be,  of  taking  up  the  work 
where  that  great  educator  laid  it  down.  Such  a  man 
was  found  in  Rev.  Edgar  Moncena  Smith,  then  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Central  New  York  Conference.  Dr.  Smith 
was  born  in  Livermore,  Me.,  in  1845,  being  thus 
when  called  to  preside  over  his  alma  mater^  thirty- 
seven  years  old.  He  graduated  at  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity, holding  the  first  rank  in  the  class  of  1871. 
After  one  year  in  the  pastorate  and  two  years  at 
Wesleyan  University,  as  instructor  in  matliematics, 
he  became,  in  1875,  pastor  of  Trinity  Church,  Provi- 
dence. After  three  years  at  Trinity,  and  three  as 
pastor  at  Newport,  R.I.,  he  spent  several  months 
abroad.  The  Doctorate  in  Divinity  was  conferred 
upon  him  in  1887,  by  Wesleyan  University.  Presi- 
dent Smith's  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the 
school  is  characterized  by  tact,  foresight,  and  discre- 
tion,—  qualities  without  which  he  would  not  have 
brought  the  institution  so  successfully  out  of  some 
peculiarly  embarrassing  circumstances.  As  a  teacher. 
Dr.  Smith  is  clear,  enthusiastic,  and  thorough.  His 
ideal  is  constantly  the  Christian  school.     That  evan- 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  445 

gelizing  spirit  and  power  which  pre-eminently  char- 
acterized his  work  as  a  pastor,  is  the  chief  character- 
istic of  his  work  as  an  educator.  The  eight  years  of 
his  administration  have  been  a  most  successful  epoch 
in  one  of  the  most  successful  and  useful  institutions 
of  the  church. 

The  institution  now  offers  to  its  patrons  five  liter- 
ary courses  of  study,  a  Conservatory  of  Music,  an 
Art  School,  a  Commercial  College,  and  a  Normal 
Department.  Its  work  is  thoroughly  systematized 
and  specialized,  each  department  being  well  equipped 
and  in  the  hands  of  teachers  whose  time  is  given  to 
it  exclusively.  The  board  of  instruction  numbers 
seventeen  teachers  and  assistants.  The  most  of 
these  enjoy  the  benefits  of  liberal  culture  and  years 
of  experience,  and  have  been  in  the  service  of  the 
school  since  the  re-organization  of  the  faculty  at  the 
opening  of  the  present  administration.  It  has  always 
been  regarded,  by  the  trustees,  as  a  matter  of  great 
importance  to  retain  the  services  of  their  faithful 
and  efficient  teachers. 

The  policy  of  the  school  is  conservative  progress. 
The  modern  folly  of  a  short  and  easy  way  to  an  edu- 
cation has  not  been  accepted ;  nor  is  it  believed  that 
play  can  produce  the  mental  fibre  which  results  from 
severe  discipline.  A  prominent  position  is  therefore 
given  to  mathematics  and  the  ancient  languages, 
and,  in  all  classes,  the  text-book  occupies  a  large 
place.  Yet  it  is  thought  that  a  study  is  not  the  less 
valuable  because  it  is  made  practical  or  interesting. 
Therefore  the  text-book  is  liberally  supplemented,  in 


446  CENTENNIAL  OF 

the  natural  sciences  and  in  English,  by  practical 
work ;  in  the  ancient  and  modern  languages  by  easy 
conversations,  sight-reading,  and  glimpses  at  local 
history  and  customs;  in  history  and  literature  by 
collateral  reading ;  and  in  psychology  and  evidences 
by  familiar  lectures.  It  is  thought  that  the  impor- 
tant branches  of  music  and  art  should  be  brought 
within  the  easy  reach  of  our  young  people ;  that 
those  who  are  to  teach  should  have  the  privilege  of 
entering  training-classes  ;  and  that  those  who  desire 
a  business  course  should  be  able  to  take  it  under  the 
best  conditions. 

The  location  is  an  important  characteristic,  which 
carries  with  it  several  others  equally  important. 
Like  all  schools,  this  is  located  in  the  most  healthful 
spot  in  the  most  healthful  State  in  the  Union  ;  but, 
unlike  some  schools,  it  is  in  a  country  district  in  the 
vigorous  old  State  of  ]\Iaine,  where  all  great  men  are 
born.  The  most  of  its  students  come  from  the  farms, 
and  are,  therefore,  honest  and  industrious,  which  is 
more  than  can  be  said  of  some  young  people  who 
come  from  other  sources. 

The  real  estate  of  the  institution  is  valued  at  one 
hundred  and  five  thousand  dollars,  and  its  invested 
funds  amount  to  about  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  dollars.  Its  average  income,  for  the  past 
few  years,  has  been  about  twelve  thousand  dollars, 
and  its  average  expenses  about  the  same.  The 
annual  attendance  for  the  last  half-dozen  years,  by 
aggregate  of  terms,  has  ranged  from  six  hundred  to 
six  hundred  and  fiftv  students. 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  447 

Improved  methods  and  the  development  of  special 
departments  have  rendered  new  accommodations 
necessary ;  and  an  agent  is  now  in  the  field,  with 
good  prospects  of  success,  soliciting  the  needed 
funds. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

NEW   HAMPSHIRE   CONFERENCE   SEMINARY. 

The  New  Hampshire  Conference  Seminary  will 
celebrate  its  semi-centennial  in  a  few  years,  having 
opened  its  halls  for  students  in  Northfield,  N.  H., 
September  3,  1845.  About  one  hundred  persons 
have  been  connected  with  its  faculty  during,  this 
time,  many  of  whom  have  attained  distinction  as 
teachers.  The  following  persons  have  held  the  presi- 
dency of  the  institution :  J.  Augustus  Adams,  A.B., 
1845-46  ;  Rev.  R.  S.  Rust,  D.D.,  1846-50 ;  Rev.  J.  E. 
Latimer,  D.D.,  1850-54 ;  Rev.  C.  S.  Harrington,  D.D., 
1854-60  ;  Rev.  C.  W.  Gushing,  D.D.,  1860-61;  Rev. 
R.  M.  Manly,  A.M.,  1861-63 ;  Rev.  Henry  Lummis, 
D.D.,  1863-65;  Rev.  L.  D.  Barrows,  D.D.,  1865-71; 
Rev.  J.  B.  Robinson,  A.M.,  1871-77;  Rev.  L.  D. 
Barrows,  D.D.,  1877-78 ;  Rev.  S.  E.  Quimby,  A.M., 
1878-85  ;  Rev.  D.  C.  Knowles,  D.D.,  1885-. 

President  Daniel  Clark  Knowles  was  born  at 
Yardville,  N.  J.,  was  graduated  at  Wesleyan  Univer- 
sity in  1858,  and  was  for  several  years  connected  with 
educational  work  as  teacher  in  and  principal  of  the 
New  Jersey  Conference  Seminary.  He  was  an  officer 
in  the  Union  Army  in  the  dark  days  of  the  Rebel- 
lion. He  entered  the  pastorate  in  1867,  at  Lawrence, 
Mass.,  and  has  since  been  connected  with  both  the 

[449] 


450  CENTENNIAL  OP 

New  England  and  New  Hampshire  Conferences. 
Six  years  ago  he  accepted  the  responsibility  of  rais- 
ing fifty  thousand  dollars  for  the  Seminary,  and  the 
following  year  was  called  to  its  presidency.  He  has 
had  the  supreme  satisfaction  of  seeing  its  new  build- 
ing erected,  and  its  halls  filled  with  earnest  students. 
His  interest  in  the  school  was  first  awakened  by  the 
zeal  and  earnestness  in  its  behalf  of  his  father-in-law, 
Dr.  L.  D.  Barrows. 

In  1852  the  institution  was  chartered  as  a  Female 
College,  with  power  to  confer  certain  degrees  on 
lady  graduates.  The  institution  therefore  combines 
the  prerogatives  of  a  female  college  with  those  of 
an  ordinary  preparatory  school. 

The  first  edifice  erected  was  seventy  feet  by  forty 
feet,  built  of  brick,  and  located  in  Northfield.  In 
1858  two  wings  were  added  to  this  building,  making 
a  large,  convenient,  and  imposing  structure.  In  1862 
this  building  was  burned  to  the  ground,  and  the 
school  was  for  a  time  greatly  crippled  for  lack  of 
accommodations. 

By  a  special  act  of  the  legislature,  the  site  was 
then  changed  to  the  present  location  in  Tilton. 
Three  buildings  were  erected.  The  one  on  the  west 
was  occupied  by  ladies,  with  dining-room  and  kitchen 
attached ;  the  centre  building  was  devoted  to  cabinet, 
chapel,  and  recitation-rooms ;  and  the  east  building 
to  gentlemen. 

From  defective  foundations  these  buildings  soon 
became  dilapidated  and  dangerous.  In  1884  the 
trustees  resolved  to  raise  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  a 


NEAY   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  451 

new  structure.  While  this  money  was  being  col- 
lected, the  east  building  was  burned,  and  a  new 
necessity  created  for  better  accommodations.  In 
1887  the  present  edifice  was  built,  and  is  one  of  the 
most  complete  school-buildings  in  New  England.  It 
is  two  and  a  half  stories  high,  with  a  large  hall  and 
four  elegant  society  rooms  in  the  upper  story.  The 
rooms  for  students  are  on  the  first  and  second  floors, 
together  with  the  recitation-rooms.  These  rooms  are 
large,  airy,  and  well  ventilated.  The  building  is 
heated  throughout  with  steam,  and  furnished  with  an 
abundance  of  pure  water,  with  all  modern  conven- 
iences, such  as  bath-rooms,  closets,  etc.  Special  at- 
tention has  been  given  to  have  the  drainage  perfect. 
This  noble  structure  stands  on  an  elevation  over- 
looking the  village,  and  only  about  three  hundred 
yards  from  the  depot.  The  scenery  is  unsurpassed 
in  loveliness.  The  windings  of  the  Winnipesaukee 
River,  the  cone-like  form  of  Mount  Kearsarge,  the 
variegated  hillside  and  valley,  complete  a  picture  of 
rare  beauty. 

The  town  of  Tilton  is  fast  becoming  noted  for  its 
internal  improvements,  charming  location,  and  the 
spirit  and  enterprise  of  its  citizens.  Prohibition  does 
prohibit,  for  there  is  no  open  sale  of  liquor  in  the 
town.  The  saloon  and  the  open  bar  are  banished, 
and  a  drunken  man  on  the  street  is  a  rare  sight. 
The  people  take  great  pride  in  their  homes  and  sur- 
roundings. Some  of  the  stores  are  elegant  in  their 
appointments ;  while  fountains,  statuary,  parks,  and 
delightful  walks,  well  concreted,  greet  the  visitor  on 


452  CENTENNIAL   OF 

every  hand.  The  town  is  abundantly  supplied  with 
the  best  of  water,  and  the  streets  and  many  houses 
are  lighted  by  electricity.  An  elegant  and  costly 
public  library,  well  stocked  with  excellent  books,  is 
open  to  all  pupils  and  citizens  without  charge. 
Three  churches,  well  sustained  and  equipped,  — 
Methodist,  Congregational,  and  Episcopal,  —  offer 
religious  advantages  to  the  community.  The  State 
Soldiers'  Home  is  soon  to  be  erected  on  an  elevation 
near  the  village,  a  home  confessedly  located  in  Tilton 
because  the  enterprising  and  moral  citizens  4iave 
banished  every  saloon  from  the  village,  and  out- 
lawed the  accursed  traffic  in  alcohol.  In  this  pure 
natural  and  social  atmosphere  the  New  Hampshire 
Conference  has  fortunately  located  its  educational 
institution. 

For  twenty  years  the  school  was  without  means 
of  support  except  its  income  from  tuition  and  board. 
It  has,  however,  secured  from  various  sources  an 
endowment  fund  of  eighteen  thousand  dollars,  besides 
the  special  gift  of  $30,500  by  Dr.  N.  G.  Ladd,  to 
found  the  Ladd  Professorship.  The  greatest  need 
of  the  institution  is  an  addition  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars  to  its  endowment  funds,  thus  enabling  it  to 
command  and  hold  the  best  teaching  talent  in  the 
market.  Already  faith  discerns  the  needed  funds, 
for  friends  are  multiplying,  and  generous  bequests 
are  being  made  to  the  school. 

No  finite  mind  can  set  forth  the  moral,  spiritual, 
and  intellectual  forces  set  in  motion  by  this  school. 
In  common^  with  all  our  Conference  seminaries,  it 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.        453 

has  aided  in  shaping  the  convictions,  and  fashioning 
the  characters,  of  the  thousands  who  have  enjoyed 
its  advantages.  Hundreds  of  young  men  and  women 
have  been  led  to  Christ  within  its  halls,  and  by  him 
have  been  lifted  up  to  a  higher  plane  of  living. 
The  intellect,  heart,  and  will  of  thousands  have  been 
inspired  by  the  sanctifying  forces  of  the  godly  men 
and  women  who  have  constituted  its  faculties,  whose 
example  and  loving  admonitions  have  become  a  living, 
though  invisible,  factor  in  our  national  life.  Its  sons 
and  daughters  are  scattered  from  Atlantic  to  Pacific 
shores,  and  foreign  lands  have  felt  the  reviving 
touch  of  its  ministers.  Every  profession,  every  le- 
gitimate line  of  business,  has  representatives  from  its 
halls.  Mention  might  be  made  of  senators  and 
congressmen  of  national  reputation,  of  several  mil- 
lionnaires  in  the  business  world,  of  many  men  in 
professional  life  in  the  State,  of  multitudes  of 
ministers  prominent  in  the  pulpits  of  our  own  de- 
nomination, as  well  as  those  of  other  communions, 
who  have  received  in  this  Seminary  their  intel- 
lectual training  in  whole  or  in  part.  About  seven 
thousand  different  students  have  been  enrolled  in  its 
catalogues. 

It  is  fitting,  therefore,  to  say  that  the  State  and 
the  nation  would  be  essentially  poorer  in  intelligence 
and  character  had  it  never  existed.  The  money 
contributed  to  sustain  it  has  been  returned  to  society 
in  manifold  productiveness.  Its  founders  and  friends 
have  been  justified  in  all  they  may  have  sacrificed  to 
give  it  permanency. 


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CHAPTER  XIX. 

VERMONT   METHODIST     SEMINARY. 

August  13,  1832,  Captain  Alden  Partridge  and 
Hon.  D.  A.  A.  Buck  addressed  the  New  Hampsliire 
Conference  at  Lyndon,  Vermont,  on  the  subject  of 
founding  and  maintaining  a  literary  institution 
within  its  borders.  The  Conference  appointed  a 
committee,  of  which  Solomon  Sias  was  chairman,  to 
consider  the  subject  referred  to.  This  committee 
reported  that  "  in  their  opinion  the  time  had  come 
for  the  Conference  to  extend  its  patronage  to  a  liter- 
ary institution  within  its  borders ; "  and  recom- 
mended that  "  a  committee  of  seven  be  appointed  to 
entertain  propositions  for  locating  this  literary  and 
scientific  institution,  with  power  to  make  contracts 
and  enter  into  any  arrangements  necessary  to  carry 
the  contemplated  object  into  effect."  The  report 
was 'adopted,  and  seven  leading  members  of  the 
Conference  appointed.  Of  three  towns  desiring  the 
school,  Newbury  was  selected  because  of  the  central 
and  very  desirable  location,  and  because  the  town 
offered  to  contribute  six  thousand  dollars,  which  was 
half  the  estimated  cost  of  the  buildings.  The  Semi- 
nary was  chartered  in  November,  1833,  and  opened 
in  September,  1834.  Funds  were  solicited  by  the 
first    treasurer,  Timothy   Morse,  and    the  building 

[455] 


456  CENTENNIAL  OP 

erected  under  his  direct  supervision,  from  plans 
furnished  by  Wilbur  Fisk  of  sainted  memory.  Rev. 
Charles  Adams,  D.D.,  whose  very  useful  and  distin- 
guished life  ended  in  Washington,  D.  C,  only  a  few 
weeks  since,  was  the  first  principal,  with  Bishop  O. 
C.  Baker,  assistant,  and  Miss  Elsie  French  (later 
Mrs.  Joel  Cooper),  preceptress.  Thus  was  founded 
what  is  to-day  the  Vermont  Methodist  Seminary. 

A  brief  sketch  of  those  early  days  may  be  of 
interest.  Dr.  Adams  remained  in  charge  of  the 
school  for  five  years,  during  which  time  the  attend- 
ance increased  from  122  to  326,  and  the  institution 
came  into  very  general  favor  throughout  the  Confer- 
ence. He  was  succeeded  by  Bishop  Baker,  who 
likewise  held  the  office  for  half  a  decade.  Under  his 
wise  and  popular  management  the  success  and  pros- 
perity of  the  past  were  not  only  continued,  but 
greatly  augmented.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that 
very  few  men  ever  wielded  so  strong  an  influence 
over  their  pupils  as  did  Bishop  Baker  over  the  young 
men  and  women  of  Newbury,  during  his  ten  years  of 
service  there  as  teacher  and  principal.  In  addition 
to  the  duties  incident  to  his  office.  Bishop  Baker 
organized  and  taught  a  class  in  systematic  theology. 
Later  this  developed  into  the  Newburj-  Biblical 
Institute,  which,  in  1846,  was  moved  to  Concord, 
N.  H.,  and  is  now  the  School  of  Theology  of  Boston 
University. 

In  1844  Bishop  Baker  resigned  to  enter  the  pastor- 
ate, and  was  succeeded  by  Clark  T.  Hinman,  D.D., 
afterward  founder  and  first  president  of  the  North- 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  457 

western  University.  From  1848  to  1854,  the  semi- 
nary was  under  tlie  management  of  Joseph  E.  King, 
D.D.,  for  the  past  tliirty-five  years  president  of  Fort 
Edward  (N.  Y.)  Collegiate  Institute.  His  adminis- 
tration may  be  styled  among  the  most  brilliant  and 
successful  in  the  entire  history  of  the  school.  One 
very  important  measure  of  that  period  was  the  estab- 
lishing of  the  Female  Collegiate  Institute,  chartered 
in  November,  1849,  and  "designed  to  afford  young 
ladies  a  thorough,  systematic,  and  liberal  course  of 
study."  The  Institute  has  gathered  to  its  fostering 
care  many  of  the  brightest  and  best  young  ladies  of 
the  Green  Mountain  and  Granite  States,  and  num- 
bers among  its  hundreds  of  graduates  some  of  the 
strongest  and  noblest  women  of  the  land. 

The  principals  for  the  remaining  fourteen  years  at 
Newbury  were :  Prof.  Henry  S.  Noyes,  Dr.  C.  W. 
Gushing,  Rev.  F.  E.  King,  Rev.  George  C.  Smith, 
Rev.  S.  E.  Quimby,  and  Rev.  S.  F.  Chester. 

For  the  first  ten  years  Newbury  Seminary  was 
peculiarly  fortunate  in. its  location,  being  central  to 
the  Conference,  and  in  one  of  the  quietest  and  most 
charming  of  New  England  towns.  But  in  1844  the 
General  Conference  designated  the  eastern  portion 
of  this  State  as  the  Vermont  Conference,  and  in  1860 
joined  to  it  the  Burlington  ami  St.  Albans  Districts. 
Soon  after  the  division  of  her  territory,  the  New 
Hampshire  Conference  established  a  seminary  under 
her  own  control  and  patronage.  These  changes  in 
Conference  boundaries  left  Newbury  at  the  extreme 
eastern  side  of  its  patronizing  territory. 


458  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Springfield  Seminary,  which  was  established  about 
1845,  and  for  a  time  was  quite  a  rival  of  Newbury, 
was  not  more  central;  nor  did  it  seem  wise  to  longer 
divide  the  patronage  between  the  two  schools. 
Moreover,  funds  were  needed  to  repair  the  old 
buildings  at  Newbury,  or  to  construct  new  ones.  To 
several  members  of  the  Conference,  and  to  the 
trustees  of  both  institutions,  this  seemed  the  time 
for  a  union  and  removal  to  a  more  central  location. 
Accordingly,  after  much  discussion  and  a  spirited 
canvass  of  the  advantages  offered  respectively  by 
Newbury,  West  Randolph,  Northfield,  Waterbury, 
and  Montpelier,  a  removal  was  agreed  upon,  and  the 
last-named  place  selected.  To  the  enterprise,  the 
town  contributed  the  grounds  formerly  used  for  the 
United  States  Hospital,  and  valued  at  twenty  thou- 
sand dollars.  November  6,  1865,  the  Seminary  was 
rechartered  under  name  of  the  Vermont  Conference, 
Seminary  and  Female  College,  and  in  the  autumn  of 
1868  was  moved  to  its  present  location.  The 
boarding-house  furnishings  and  school  apparatus 
were  brought  from  Newbury,  while  Springfield  con- 
tributed the  entire  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  that 
property.  Thus,  by  mutual  consent,  the  two  semi- 
naries were  merged  into  one,  having  a  location 
central  to  the  Conference  and  State. 

After  the  removal,  changes  in  the  board  of  instruc- 
tion were  altogether  too  frequent,  there  being  no 
less  than  five  different  principals  during  the  first 
eight  years.  Yet  the  school  did  good  work,  and 
enjoyed  a  fairly  good  reputation.     In  1877    Rev.  J. 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  459 

B.  Southworth  entered  into  an  agreement  with  the 
trustees  to  assume  the  financial  responsibility,  and 
manage  the  institution  for  a  term  of  five  years. 
Although  successful  for  a  time,  yet  by  reason  of 
financial  embarrassment,  he  resigned  before  the  lease 
expired.  In  March,  1882,  the  trustees  again  assumed 
control  of  the  property,  which  ought  never  to  have 
passed  out  of  their  hands.  In  constructing  the  new 
building,  the  Seminary  became  burdened  with  debt, 
so  that  later  its  usefulness,  if  not  its  existence,  was 
seriously  imperilled.  The  most  important  and  suc- 
cessful effort  for  the  removal  of  this  incubus  was 
made  in  1882,  when  Rev.  J.  D.  Beeman  was  elected 
president.  In  five  years  he  increased  the  attendance 
by  nearly  one  hundred  per  cent,  raised  over  thirty 
thousand  dollars  in  form  of  annuities,  and  a  perma- 
nent scholarship  fund  of  about  fifteen  thousand  dol- 
lars. While  many  and  very  necessary  improvements 
have  been  made  in  the  buildings  and  outfit,  it  is  a 
matter  of  sincere  regret  that  some  portion  of  the  old 
debt  remains,  for  which  no  provision  has  been  made. 
During  the  first  forty  years  of  its  history  the 
Seminary  was  without  endowment.  However,  in 
1875,  Noah  Granger  began  the  task  of  raising  a  fund 
of  fifty  thousand  dollars.  He  has  secured  pledges 
for  over  four-fifths  of  that  amount,  about  half  of 
which  has  been  paid  in  and  invested.  His  faithful, 
unyielding,  and  heroic  efforts  claim  from  every  friend 
of  the  school  prompt  and  grateful  recognition,  and 
plead  in  terms  stronger  than  words  for  the  remaining 
ten  thousand  dollars. 


4G0  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Principal  E.  A.  Bishop  was  born  in  Wrightstown, 
N.  J.,  August  24,  1852.  He  fitted  for  college  in  a 
small  private  school  near  home  (New  Egypt,  N.  J.)  ; 
graduated  from  Wesleyan  University  in  1878;  taught 
in  Bordentown  Female  College  one  year;  was  prin- 
cipal of  Durham  (Conn.)  Academy  two  years ;  and 
was  called  to  Vermont  Methodist  Seminary  in  1881. 

Vermont  Methodist  Seminary  as  it  is  to-day:  — 

1.  The  location  is  most  liealthful  and  delightful. 
The  grounds  are  one  hundred  feet  above  the  town, 
and  fully  six  hundred  feet  above  sea-level.  They 
are  distant  from  the  principal  streets  about  a  half- 
mile,  so  that  the  school  shares  all  the  advantages  of 
a  large  town,  but  escapes  the  disadvantages.  In 
every  direction  may  be  seen  hills  and  valleys  of 
surpassing  beauty ;  while  twenty  miles  to  the  west, 
in  full  view,  is  one  of  the  highest  peaks  in  the  Green 
Mountain  system.  Within  a  few  months,  the  class 
of  1890  has  secured  a  handsome  fund  to  be  expended 
upon  the  campus.  Among  the  improvements  will 
be  nicely-plotted  base  and  football  grounds,  tennis- 
courts,  ornamental  trees,  fine  walks,  and  a  fountain 
costing  in  the  vicinity  of  one  thousand  dollars. 
With  these  improvements  it  is  confidently  asserted 
that  these  will  be  among  the  most  attractive  school- 
grounds  in  New  Enorland. 

2.  The  Seminary  edifice,  completed  in  1872,  is  a 
substantial  four-story  brick  building,  one  hundred 
and  fifteen  feet  long  and  sixty-five  feet  wide.  The 
boarding-house  is  a  frame  structure,  containing 
accommodations  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  persons. 


NEW   ENGLAND  JMETHODISM.  461 

The  three  sub-boarding  houses  offer  rooms  for  about 
seventy  students.  The  buildings  are  all  lighted  by 
electricity,  and  plans  are  making  whereby  the  brick 
structure  may  soon  be  heated  by  steam. 

3.  The  Seminary  has  always  been  favored  in  the 
class  of  students  gathered  in  her  halls.  From  the 
days  of  Judge  D.  N.  Cooley,  the  sainted  Professor 
Harrington,  Hon.  Alden  Speare,  Dr.  George  M. 
Steele,  Mrs.  C.  S.  Harrington,  and  Mrs.  C.  P.  Taplin, 
until  now,  her  boys  and  girls  have  come  with  less 
money  than  character,  with  less  conceit  than  down- 
right ability  and  stalwart  purposes.  The  teacher 
who  stands  before  such  students  is  prompted  to  his 
best  efforts,  and  is  sure  of  their  profound  attention. 

4.  Founded  through  the  self-denial  and  self-sacri- 
fice of  godly  men  and  women,  the  subject  of  their 
devout  and  earnest  prayers,  this  always  has  been 
a  Christian  school.  During  its  history,  hundreds, 
and  probably  thousands,  of  the  students  have  been 
brought  to  a  saving  knowledge  of  Christ,  and  as 
many  more  have  come  into  the  enjoyment  of  a  clear 
experience,  and  a  deep  love  for  his  service.  Within 
the  past  eight  years  those  wonderful  days  at  New- 
bury have  been  lived  over  again.  In  this  time  two 
hundred  have  sought  the  Saviour,  and  hundreds 
more  have  learned  of  "the  deep  things  of  God." 
Rarely  does  a  student  complete  his  course  without 
coming  to  feel  and  confess  his  need  of  the  divine 
Teacher. 

5.  Since  1882  the  aggregate  attendance  by  terms 
has  risen  from  three   hundred  to  over  six  hundred 


462  NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM. 

and  twenty-five,  with  good  prospect  that  it  will  soon 
reach  seven  Imndred.  This  remarkable  growth  may 
be  attributed  to  two  causes :  (a)  Higher  grade  of 
instruction.  The  teachers  have  been  selected  with 
much  care,  and  sometimes  at  much  greater  expense. 
The  departments  are  coming  to  have  more  than  a 
local  reputation.  While  others  might  be  mentioned, 
we  refer  to  the  music  only.  Here  are  found  a  full 
line  of  good  musical  instruments,  including  a  two- 
manual  pipe-organ  of  twenty-one  registers,  a  director 
who  is  a  recognized  master  in  his  profession,  and  an 
arrangement  whereby  our  graduates  may,  without 
examination,  enter  the  last  grade  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Conservatory.  (^)  The  intense  loyalty  of  the 
students  and  graduates.  They  found  in  the  school 
a  pleasant  home,  with  their  fellow-students  delightful 
associations,  and  in  the  religious  meetings  the 
strongest  and  deepest  emotions  to  right  living.  No 
institution  is  likely  to  fail  of  prosperity  whose  thou- 
sands of  students  remember  it  with  deep  gratitude 
and  love. 


'pr.* 


^;'"ift'"-^l 


(^ 


CHAPTER   XX. 

WESLEYAN   ACADEMY,   WILBRAHAM,   MASS. 

The  Wesleyan  Academy  was  first  established  at 
Newmarket,  N.  H.,  about  1818.  Whether  the  school, 
which  has  had  its  local  habitation  as  well  as  its 
name  at  Wilbraham  since  1824,  is  identical  with  that 
of  Newmarket,  is  possibly  open  to  some  debate ;  for 
it  has  never  been  absolutely  settled  wherein  personal 
identity  consists,  much  less  that  of  corporations,  and 
even,  singularly,  of  newspapers !  Be  that  as  it  may, 
while  no  one  could  ever  properly  claim  that  the 
Academy  at  Wilbraham  was  legally  the  same  as  the 
one  at  Newmarket,  it  has  been  maintained,  with  some 
show  of  consistency,  that  the  educational  enterprise 
was  one,  and  that  only  the  locality  was  changed. 
What  had  been  a  failure  in  New  Hampshire,  devel- 
oped into  vigorous  life  in  Western  Massachusetts,  and 
has  been  for  many  a  year  one  of  the  great  schools  of 
New  England. 

The  charter  for  the  school  at  Wilbraham  was 
secured  in  1824,  and  the  school  was  opened  with 
seven  students  in  the  fall  of  1825.  Wilbur  Fisk, 
elected  its  first  principal,  could  not  give  his  whole 
personal  attention  to  the  duties  of  his  new  office 
till  near  the  close  of  the  first  academical  year ;  but 
under   the   preceptorship   of   Mr.  Nathaniel    Dunn, 

[467] 


468  CENTENNIAL  OF 

who  has  but  recently  died  in  New  York  City,  the 
number  of  students  rapidly  increased ;  and  long 
before  Dr.  Fisk  had  been  called  to  the  presidency  of 
the  college  at  Middletown,  it  had  become  a  popular 
resort  of  students,  not  only  from  many  parts  of  New 
England,  but  from  the  Middle  States  and  the  South. 
After  Dr.  Fisk  there  were  two  or  three  principals 
who  for  various  reasons  were  only  briefly  at  the  head 
of  the  school.  The  first  who  directed  its  afifairs  for 
any  considerable  time  was  David  Patten,  from  1834 
to  1841.  These  seven  years  constitute  a  period  of 
steady  prosperity  and  growing  efficiency.  Mr.  Patten 
was  succeeded  by  Charles  Adams,  and  he,  in  1845, 
by  Robert  Allyn.  In  1848  began  the  principalship 
of  Miner  Raymond,  the  longest,  and  in  many  respects 
the  most  successful,  of  any  in  the  history  of  the 
Academy.  It  was  under  Dr.  Raymond's  administra- 
tion that  the  new  buildings,  Fisk  Hall,  Binney  Hall, 
and  the  magnificent  new  boarding-house  at  present 
known  as  Rich  Hall,  were  erected.  The  old  frame 
boarding-house  was  burned  about  1857.  This,  on 
the  whole,  was  a  blessing ;  but  the  large  new  struc- 
ture which  took  its  place  perished  in  like  manner 
almost  before  the  school  was  fairly  settled  in  it.  This 
appeared  almost  like  a  fatal  calamity,  as  none  of  the 
money  to  meet  its  expenses  had  been  raised,  and  the 
cost  above  its  insurance  had  been  about  thirty  thou- 
sand dollars.  But  with  an  energy  that  overcomes 
the  greatest  obstacles.  Dr.  Raymond  and  the  friends 
of  the  Academy  succeeded  in  replacing  the  destroyed 
building  with    a    still    handsomer   one;    and   when 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  469 

Dr.  Raymond  resigned,  in  1864,  few  institutions 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Methodist  Church  were 
equipped  with  finer  facilities  for  secondary  education 
than  this. 

Dr.  Edward  Cooke  was  elected  principal  in  1864, 
and  occupied  the  position  till  1874.  Everything  was 
favorable  to  the  success  of  the  school  during  this 
period,  and  for  a  series  of  years  the  number  of  stu- 
dents was  greater  than  for  any  other  equally  long 
period  since  its  foundation.  Dr.  Cooke  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Nathaniel  Fellows.  This  period  was  one 
of  great  depression  to  all  the  business  interests  of 
the  country,  and  our  schools  and  colleges  suffered 
severely.  The  Wesleyan  Academy  was  no  excep- 
tion. The  new  principal  made  a  good  and  sturdy 
fiofht,  and  a  successful  one.  There  was  no  increase 
of  the  debt,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  a  diminution, 
while  the  educational  facilities  were  not  diminished. 
The  remarkable  feature  in  the  history  of  the  institu- 
tion is,  that  for  nearly  sixty  years  it  had  never  a  dollar 
of  endowment.  All  its  current  expenses  were  met 
by  the  receipts  from  students,  and  these  were  always 
at  a  moderate  rate.  Not  only  was  there  no  endow- 
ment, but  for  nearly  half  of  this  time  there  was  a 
debt  which  had  been  originally  incurred  by  the 
burning  of  the  second  boarding-house,  and  which 
averaged  about  twenty  thousand  dollars,  sometimes! 
increasing,  and  then  again  being  diminished.  It  is 
a  remarkable  instance  of  a  school  of  high  order 
maintained  entirely  by  its  patronage,  and  yet  its  cost 
of  education  so  low  that  even  those  in  the   most 


470  CENTENNIAL  OP 

moderate  conditions  could   avail  themselves  of  its 
privileges. 

The  present  principal,  Rev.  Geo.  M.  Steele,  D.D., 
who  has  served  since  1879,  was  born  in  Strafford, 
Orange  County,  Vermont.  His  father  was  Rev.  Joel 
Steele,  for  about  forty  years  a  member  of  the  New 
Eno-land  Conference.  When  about  nine  or  ten  years 
old  he  left  home,  and  spent  the  remainder  of  his 
boyhood,  till  twenty-one  years  of  age,  on  a  farm  in 
the  town  where  he  was  born.  The  opportunities  of 
schools  were  few  and  small,  but  he  had  two  winter 
terms  at  Newbury  Seminary  before  he  was  of  age. 
At  this  Seminary  he  finally  prepared  for  college. 
After  some  preliminary  struggles,  he  ventured  to 
enter  the  Wesleyan  University,  in  1846.  The  fight 
was  a  hard  one,  but  a  good  one,  and  he  graduated  in 
1850.  After  this,  three  years  were  spent  in  teaching 
at  Wilbraham.  Uniting  with  the  New  England  Con- 
ference in  1851,  he  took  his  first  appointment  at 
Warren  in  1853,  and  had  successive  pastorates  at 
Fitchburg ;  Lowell,  St.  Paul's ;  Lynn  Common  ; 
Church  Street,  Boston  ;  and  again  at  Fitchburg.  In 
1865  he  was  elected  president  of  Lawrence  Univer- 
sity, in  Appleton,  Wis.,  where  he  remained  fourteen 
years.  The  college,  like  most  of  our  new  Western 
institutions,  was  endowed  with  unlimited  poverty  ; 
but,  like  many  others  of  them,  it  did  a  work  in  the 
educational  line  which  the  Church  and  the  country 
would  have  been  poorer  without.  Dr.  Steele  has 
been  three  times  a  member  of  the  General  Confer- 
ence, has  travelled  in  Europe,  and  has  written  quite 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  471 

largely  for  the  press,  both  in  our  own  church  periodi- 
cals and  in  magazines  and  reviews  outside.  He  is 
the  author,  also,  of  several  text-books  which  have 
found  more  or  less  acceptance. 

During  the  present  administration  the  affairs  of 
the  Academy  have  been  prosperous.  The  debt, 
which  under  Principal  Fellows  had  been  consider- 
ably reduced,  in  part  by  a  legacy  of  the  late  Amos  B. 
Merrill,  Esq.,  and  in  part  by  the  careful  management 
of  the  resources,  was,  owing  to  the  small  number  in 
attendance  at  first,  increased  under  the  new  principal, 
running  up  from  about  seventeen  thousand  dollars  to 
more  than  twenty-three  thousand  dollars  within  the 
three  years.  But  from  this  time  an  effort  was  made 
first  to  liquidate  it.  An  agent  was  appointed  to 
raise  funds  for  this  purpose.  Under  Dr.  Crowell 
many  thousand  dollars  were  raised,  and  many  thou- 
sand more  were  saved  from  the  current  income  of 
the  corporation,  so  that  in  18S7  the  debt  had  wholly 
disappeared.  Much  had  also  been  expended  in  the 
mean  time  in  adding  to  the  facilities  and  attractions 
of  the  school,  so  that,  at  present,  there  are  few 
schools  of  its  grade  that  are  better  furnished  for  its 
purposes  than  the  Wesleyan  Academy.  Besides  this. 
Dr.  Crowell  was  successful  in  securing  several  thou- 
sand dollars  towards  the  beginning  of  an  endowment. 
There  are  now  fifteen  thousand  dollars  of  productive 
funds,  and  in  addition  to  these  some  eight  thousand 
or  ten  thousand  dollars  of  annuity  funds  which 
have  been  paid  into  the  treasury,  but  upon  which 
the  donors  claim  interest  during  their  lives.     There 


472  CENTENNIAL  OF 

are  also  other  funds  which  are  on  their  way  to  the 
endowment  of  the  institution.  In  short,  its  financial 
condition  was  never  so  good  as  now. 

There  are  two  paramount  lines  of  educational 
work  in  the  Wesleyan  Academy.  Tliese  are  indi- 
cated in  the  two  principal  courses  of  study :  the  col- 
lege-preparatory and  tlie  academy  courses.  The 
former  is  what  its  title  implies,  and  is  intended  to  be 
as  complete  and  effective  as  it  is  possible  to  make  it. 
The  latter  is  intended  to  give  a  thorough,  substantial, 
and  sensible  training  to  such  as  cannot,  or  think 
they  cannot,  take  a  full  college  course.  It  has 
proved  of  vast  advantage  to  a  great  multitude  of 
young  people.  Around  these  lie  several  collateral, 
or  special,  courses.  The  musical  department  is  one 
of  high  character  and  more  than  ordinary  popularity. 
The  art  department  has  also,  within  the  last  few 
years,  had  a  remarkable  development,  and  attracts 
many  pupils.  The  commercial  department  presents 
all  the  advantages  of  a  business  college,  and,  espe- 
cially under  its  present  direction,  is  unusually  free 
from  the  objectionable  features  of  such  schools. 
There  is  a  course  in  industrial  science  which  is  of 
great  value  to  a  certain  class  of  students.  The 
instruction  in  elocution  has  been  for  some  years  a 
marked  feature  in  the  institution.  Physical  culture 
is  carefully  attended  to,  and  the  gymnastic  training 
here  is  on  the  strict  scientific  principles  that  are 
applied  in  only  a  few  of  our  secondary  schools. 

For  some  years  the  scientific  study  of  the  Bible 
was  peculiar  to  this  among  almost  all  our  denomina- 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  473 

tional  schools.  We  are  happy  to  state  that  this  is 
no  longer  the  case.  The  method  of  Bible  study 
introduced  by  Dr.  Steele,  at  the  beginning  of  his 
administration,  and  which  was  looked  upon  with 
much  doubt  by  many  wise  educators,  has  now  been 
adopted,  we  are  assured,  in  some  forty  other  institu- 
tions ;  while  other  schools  and  colleges  have  intro- 
duced similar,  though  not  identical,  schemes. 

The  government  of  the  Academy,  while  intended 
to  be  watchful  and  strict,  still  admits  of  that  indi- 
vidual freedom  which  is  essential  to  all  self-govern- 
ment. For  it  is  the  policy  of  the  scliool  to  cultivate 
this ;  and  it  is  the  prevailing  conviction  that,  if  a 
young  person  does  not  learn  to  govern  himself,  no 
matter  how  careful  and  rigid  the  regime  may  be,  it 
will  prove  a  failure. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

EAST  GREENWICH  ACADEMY. 

The  East  Greenwich  Academy,  though  bearing  a 
different  name  and  conducted  under  other  auspices, 
originated  in  the  year  1802,  and  was  known  as  Kent 
Academy.  It  is,  therefore,  the  oldest  of  our  Meth- 
odist institutions  of  learning.  It  had  then  but  a 
single  building,  sixty  feet  by  thirty,  and  two  stories 
in  height,  a  few  feet  in  front  of  the  spot  on  which 
the  present  Academy  building  stands.  Upon  its 
organization  in  1841,  the  Providence  Conference 
adopted  measures  for  the  establishment  of  a  Semi- 
nary within  its  bounds,  which  resulted  in  the  pur- 
chase of  this  Academy.  No  other  of  our  Conference 
schools  has  so  beautiful  and  excellent  a  location.  It 
stands  on  elevated  ground  on  the  western  shore  of 
the  Narragansett  Bay,  presenting  a  view  of  both 
shores  for  a  distance  of  twenty  miles.  From  the 
observatory  may  be  seen  with  the  naked  eye,  Warren, 
Bristol,  and  the  cities  of  Providence,  Fall  River,  and 
Newport.  Persons  who  have  visited  Europe  have 
pronounced  the  view  equal  to  that  of  the  Bay  of 
Naples.  Its  seaside  advantages,  the  mildness  of 
the  climate,  and  the  healthfulness  of  the  location, 
render  it  a  most  desirable  spot  for  the  life  of  a 
student.     It  is  easily  accessible,  as  it  is  on  the  main 

[475] 


476  CENTENNIAL  OF 

line  of  railway  from  New  York  to  Providence  and 
Boston. 

Upon  the  purchase  of  the  property,  the  trustees 
proceeded  to  the  erection  of  a  large  and  commodious 
boarding-hall,  which  in  1868  was  remodelled  and 
enlarged  at  the  cost  of  about  fifteen  thousand  dol- 
lars. They  purchased  additional  ground,  securing  a 
campus  of  five  acres  in  extent.  A  few  years  later 
the  private  residence  known  as  the  Winsor  House 
was  bought;  and  in  1858  the  present  Academy  build- 
ing proper,  one  of  the  three  on  its  grounds,  was 
erected.  It  contains  a  very  superior  chapel,  commo- 
dious recitation-rooms,  art  room,  rooms  for  literary 
societies,  offices,  cabinet,  laboratory,  library,  and 
reading-room.  Across  the  street  from  the  boarding- 
hall  is  the  principal's  residence,  acquired  in  1888,  with 
convenient  and  elegant  parlors  for  use  in  the  social 
life  of  the  school ;  although  he  and  his  family,  with 
the  faculty,  board  with  the  students.  All  these 
buildings  are  warmed  with  steam  and  lighted  by 
electricity. 

After  the  school  came  into  Methodist  hands,  Ben- 
jamin F.  Tefft  was  the  first  principal.  He  became 
known  throughout  the  church  as  editor  of  the  Ladies' 
Repository.  The  gentlemen  who  held  the  office  the 
longest,  previous  to  the  coming  of  the  present  prin- 
cipal, were  Robert  Allyn,  six  years,  Geo.  W.  Quereau, 
four  years,  and  J.  T.  Edwards,  seven  years. 

Rev.  Francis  D.  Blakeslee,  D.D.,  now  at  the  head 
of  the  institution,  has  been  longer  in  service  than 
any  other  of  our  New  England  principals;  and  of 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  477 

those  who  were  in  that  office,  in  Methodist  literary 
institutions,  when  he  took  charge  of  the  Academy  in 
1873,  very  few  now  hokl  the  same  position.  He  is 
of  good  Methodist  stock,  the  son  of  the  kite  Rev. 
George  H.  Bhikeslee,  of  the  Wyoming  Conference, 
and  was  born  at  Vestal,  Broome  Co.,  N.  Y.,  in  1846. 
In  the  war  of  the  Rebellion  he  was  a  clerk  in  the 
field,  and  in  the  office  of  the  quartermaster-general 
at  Washington,  in  1863-65  ;  but  at  the  age  of  eighteen 
he  resigned  his  place,  to  which  a  salary  of  one  thou- 
sand two  hundred  dollars  was  attached,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  completing  his  preparation  for  college.  He 
became  a  student  at  Wyoming  Seminary,  at  Kingston, 
Pa.,  then  in  charge  of  that  widely  honored  educator, 
Dr.  Reuben  Nelson.  He  graduated  with  the  first 
class  of  Syracuse  University,  in  1872,  having  pre- 
viously served  eight  months  in  the  pastorate  and 
one  year  as  a  high-school  principal.  On  his  gradua- 
tion he  entered  the  ministr}^ ;  and  when  in  Jiis  first 
appointment,  at  Groveland,  New  York,  in  the  Gene- 
see Conference,  he  was  called  to  his  present  position, 
where  he  remained  until  1884.  After  his  resignation 
he  travelled  some  eight  months  in  Europe.  Soon 
after  his  return  he  was  appointed  to  the  charge  of 
the  Thames  Street  Church,  in  Newport,  R.  I.,  from 
which  he  was  recalled  to  the  Academy  in  1887.  He 
again  visited  Europe  in  the  summer  of  1889,  and 
during  his  absence  Wesleyan  University  conferred 
upon  him  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  in  Divinity. 
Under  his  administration  the  school  has  greatly 
prospered,  the  number  of  its  pupils  rising  higher 
than  at  any  former  period  of  its  history. 


478  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Like  most  institutions  of  its  grade,  the  Academy- 
has  experienced  checkered  financial  fortune,  being 
dependent  on  its  income  from  term-bills  to  meet  its 
current  expenses.  In  its  necessities,  which  have  not 
been  few,  it  has  found  noble  and  beneficent  friends, 
but  until  recently  it  lias  been  without  endowment. 
In  1888  it  received  from  the  estate  of  the  late  Ste- 
phen T.  Olney,  of  Providence,  the  sum  of  forty-three 
thousand  dollars,  of  which  thirty  thousand  dollars 
constitutes  a  permanent  fund.  It  is  hoped  that  this 
is  but  the  beginning  of  such  an  endowment  as  will 
largely  multiply  the  facilities  of  the  school,  and 
enable  it  to  do  even  better  work  than  it  has  hitherto 
done. 

The  school  has  now  twelve  departments  of  instruc- 
tion, including,  in  addition  to  the  common  English 
branches,  several  graduating  courses.  Ladies,  as  well 
as  gentlemen,  are  admitted  to  them,  and  they  find 
them  fully  equal  to  those  in  many  of  the  so-called 
female  colleges.  Competent  inspectors  pronounce 
the  instruction  in  English  of  a  very  superior  grade. 
The  college  preparatory  courses  are  adapted  to  the 
wants  of  those  who  propose  to  take  the  full  curric- 
ulum and  those  who  can  take  only  a  scientific  or 
Latin-scientific  course.  Testimony  is  not  wanting 
from  some  of  the  best  colleges  to  the  excellent  prep- 
aration received  here,  and  the  standard  is  fully 
maintained.  The  instruction  in  the  Commercial 
Department  is  as  full  and  thorough  as  that  given  in 
the  best  commercial  colleges,  and  at  considerably 
less  cost  to  the  student.     As  a  rule,  its  graduates  do 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  479 

not  find  it  difficult  to  obtain  satisfactory  positions. 
Its  Music  Department  has,  from  the  days  of  Dr. 
Tourjee,  who  founded  here  the  first  Conservatory  of 
Music  in  America,  been  a  specialty.  The  pupils  are 
brought  under  the  same  systematic  drill  that  would 
be  given  them  in  the  best  conservatories  in  Europe. 
The  Department  of  Elocution  is  not  a  mere  accident 
of  the  school,  but  receives  the  entire  time  of  the 
instructor.  Two  years  ago  a  Normal  Department 
was  opened,  under  the  charge  of  a  competent  teacher, 
with  the  special  advantage  of  a  practice  school  in 
which  the  pupil  is  enabled  to  test  the  instruction 
received.  Its  utility  and  success  thus  far  are  very 
marked.  In  every  department  the  school  is  doing 
good,  honest  work,  and  is  proving  itself  worthy  of  the 
renewed  attention  turned  to  it  in  recent  years,  and  of 
the  fullest  confidence  of  its  friends.  The  school  is 
Methodist  —  that  is,  under  Methodist  domination  and 
control;  it  is,  moreover,  emphatically  a  religious 
school  and  under  decided  religious  influence.  Not 
only  is  the  Bible  a  text-book,  but  a  large  proportion 
of  the  students  are  members  of  some  Christian 
Church,  a  number  are  preparing  for  the  ministry  of 
the  gospel,  and  seldom  does  a  term  pass  without 
conversions  to  Christ.  In  this  respect  it  has  been 
greatly  blessed  during  the  present  year. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

LASELL    SEMINARY    FOR   YOUNG   WOMEN, 
AUBURNDALE,   MASS. 

Lasell  Seminary  was  founded  in  1851  by  Ed- 
ward Lasell,  professor  of  chemistr}^  in  Williams 
XJollege,  and  incorporated  in  the  same  year.  It  was, 
fortunately,  placed  in  Auburndale,  a  ward  of  New- 
ton, charming  and  healthful  in  situation,  a  city  of 
beautiful  and  refined  homes,  and  so  near  to  Boston 
as  to  command  all  its  advantages. 

Professor  Lasell  lived  only  long  enough  to  see 
his  plans  for  a  girls'  school  of  high  rank  successful. 
For  ten  years  after  his  death  the  work  was  carried 
on  by  his  brother  Josiah,  and  his  brother-in-law, 
George  W.  Briggs. 

In  1862  Rev.  Charles  W.  Cushing  became  principal 
and  proprietor.  In  1873  he  sold  the  Seminary  and 
grounds  to  twenty  prominent  men  of  Boston,  who 
became  a  body  of  trustees.  They  refitted  the  insti- 
tution with  steam-heat,  gas,  new  furniture,  pianos, 
etc.,  and  in  1874  made  Mr.  Charles  C.  Bragdon 
principal.  He  soon  proved  to  be  the  right  man  for 
the  place.  Though  young  (only  twenty-six),  he  had 
had  seven  years'  experience  in  teaching.  Graduated 
by  a  university  at  home,  he  had  entered  one  abroad, 
and,  while  continuing  his  studies,  gained  much  from 

[481] 


482  CENTENNIAL   OF 

travel  and  keen  observation.  Of  great  energy  and 
perseverance,  and  "extraordinarily  independent  mind 
and  character,"  he  takes  the  broadest  views,  yet  is 
patient  with  the  smallest  detail.  He  put  a  deter- 
mined shoulder  to  the  wheel,  and  the  progress,  year 
by  year,  has  been  phenomenal. 

In  1874  there  were  twenty  pupils  in  Lasell 
Seminary ;  now  there  are  more  than  six  times  as 
many.  The  building  was  doubled  in  size  in  1881,  at 
a  cost  of  over  thirty  thousand  dollars,  yet  every  year 
from  thirty  to  forty  applicants  are  refused  for  want 
of  room,  the  persistent  policy  being  in  favor  of  a 
small  school.  And  while  paying  off  heavy  debts, 
the  improvements,  without  and  within,  make  the  old 
place  almost  unrecognizable.  The  present  adminis- 
tration began  with  a  debt  of  sixty  thousand  dollars. 
This  has  wholly  disappeared,  and  over  seventy-five 
thousand  dollars  have  been  put  into  the  institution  in 
real  or  personal  property.  The  school  has  had  less 
than  twenty-five  dollars  in  gifts  from  all  sources. 

Among  these  improvements  are  the  pictures  that 
turn  the  beautiful  studio  into  an  art  gallery,  adorn 
the  walls  everywhere,  and  fill  the  folios  and  the 
cabinet.  Tliere  are  a  goodly  number  in  color,  oil,  and 
water  —  a  fair  number  originals —  with  many  i)hoto- 
graphs  and  engravings.  In  all,  the  catalogue  has 
nearly  nineteen  hundred,  and  additions  are  frequent. 
The  collection  was  mainly  made  by  the  principal  in 
Europe,  where  he  takes  summer  parties  of  the  pupils 
and  their  friends. 

The  library  is  the  nucleus  of  a  fair  one  for  refer- 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  483 

ence.  The  old  dining-room  has  given  way  to  a  large 
and  handsome  successor.  The  old  gymnasium  is 
now  a  well-fitted  laboratory  for  class  and  individual 
work.  The  new  gjannasium,  built  in  1883  —  an 
uncommonly  fine  one — is  in  charge  of  a  pupil  of 
Dr.  Sargent,  of  Cambridge,  is  carried  on  upon  the 
principles  of  which  he  is  the  chief  apostle,  and  is  in 
some  sense  still  in  his  care.  Twice  a  week,  instead 
of  the  daily  gymnastics,  a  military  drill  of  half  an 
hour  takes  place  under  a  trained  military  officer. 
Light  wooden  guns  are  used.  These  exercises  give 
erect  position,  graceful  carriage,  and,  not  least, 
prompt  obedience.  The  lower  story  holds  a  ten-pin 
alley  and  natatorium.  The  water  in  the  ample  tank 
is  heated  and  often  changed.  An  accomplished 
iiistructor  in  swimming  is  employed. 

A  resident  physician  looks  after  the  health,  habits 
of  dress,  recreation,  etc.,  of  the  pupils,  with  a  hint 
here  or  there,  or  perhaps  a  radical  change.  With 
the  care  and  regular  hours,  many  a  weak  girl  gains 
strength.  Fainting  and  hysteria  have  gone  out  of 
fashion,  and  to  be  "  delicate  "  is  no  longer  in  good 
taste. 

One  teacher  is  devoting  herself  to  the  training  of 
the  nerves,  having  recently  studied  the  subject  in 
London.  The  direct  object  is  not  health  —  though 
it  must  serve  it  —  but  concentration  of  the  faculties 
to  obtain  the  highest  activity,  by  self-control. 

The  regular  course  in  Liberal  Arts  consists  of  four 
years,  for  which  there  is  one  preparatory  year.  The 
department  of  music,  vocal  and  instrumental,  is  well 


484  CENTENNIAL   OP 

known  for  its  satisfactory  results.  Pupils  often 
come  to  Lasell  for  this  specialty,  which  is  accepted 
as  an  elective  among  the  branches  necessary  for 
graduation.  This  is  also  true  of  drawing  and  paint- 
ing, and  the  opportunities  in  both  music  and  painting 
are  much  enhanced  by  the  nearness  to  Boston,  a 
centre  for  art  in  both  particulars. 

While  the  language  course,  ancient  and  modern,  is 
full,  the  effort  is  constantly  made  to  emphasize  the 
mother  tongue.  Some  girls  come  for  only  one  or 
two  years.  As  far  as  may  be  in  that  time,  they  are 
trained  to  speak,  read,  and  write  correctly,  and  have 
some  taste  for  good  books.  One  teaclier  gives  all 
her  time  to  English,  another  to  elocution,  with  like 
intention  ;  and  much  time  and  emphasis  are  given 
to  history  and  literature,  with  a  specialist  for  the 
highest  English  classics.  Much  help  is  derived,  also, 
from  courses  of  occasional  lectures  by  specialists 
brought  to  the  school,  or  heard  in  Boston. 

Principal  Charles  Cushraan  Bragdon  was  born 
September  6,  1847,  at  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  lived  six  years 
there,  and  two  at  Springfield,  Mass.,  then  successively 
in  Waukegan,  Aurora,  and  Evanston,  111.  He  is 
the  son  of  Maine  parents  —  Charles  P.  Bragdon,  for 
many  years  a  member  of  the  Maine  Conference,  and 
Sarah  W.  Cushman  of  East  Poland,  also  a  member 
of  the  Maine  Conference,  thougli  for  a  shorter  term, 
and  not  enrolled.  His  father  died  at  Evanston  when 
he  was  thirteen  years  old  ;  his  mother  is  living  there 
in  excellent  health.  Cliarles  C.  entered  the  North- 
western University  in  18G0  ;  taught  in  Elgin  Acad- 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  485 

emy  the  winter  of  1863-64;  enlisted  in  the  134th 
Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry  in  the  spring  of  1864; 
and  was  honorably  discharged  in  December  of  the 
same  year;  re-entered  the  University  and  graduated 
in  1865 ;  taught  Latin,  Greek,  and  German  in  Dick- 
inson Seminary,  Williamsport,  Penn.,  1865-67  ;  was 
in  the  office  of  the  Little  Corporal^  Chicago,  till 
August,  1868 ;  taught  Latin  and  Greek  in  Wesleyan 
College,  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  1868-72 ;  studied  at  Tii- 
bingen,  Germany,  1872-73;  taught  Latin,  Greek, 
and  German  at  Jennings  Seminary,  Aurora,  111.,  till 
June,  1873;  came  to  Auburndale,  August,  1874,  as 
principal  of  Lasell.  In  June,  1869,  was  married  to 
Kate  E.  Ransom,  of  Williamsport,  Penn.,  and  has 
two  children. 

In  1877  Lasell  took  a  new  departure.  Believing 
the  chief  business  of  women  to  be  home-making,  and 
seeing  that  the  conflict  with  the  present  dire  domestic 
problems  is  often  greater  than  they  can  bear,  experts 
and  specialists  were  brought  to  counsel  and  instruct. 
Mrs.  Helen  Campbell  treated  of  domestic  science  in 
general ;  Mrs.  Croly  (Jennie  June),  of  dress ;  Miss 
Marion  Talbot,  of  Boston,  gives  annually  a  course  of 
lectures  upon  home  sanitation.  This,  with  practical 
illustrations,  visiting  buildings  to  examine  the 
plumbing,  etc.,  is  a  feature  of  the  school  of  much 
importance  —  a  unique  one,  it  is  believed.  Miss 
Parloa  began  giving  demonstrations  in  cooking,  and 
has  had  several  worthy  successors;  while  volunteers 
and  advanced  pupils  cook  in  small  classes,  and  prizes 
are  given  for  the   best    bread.     Dress   cutting  and 


486  CENTENNIAL  OP 

making  have  long  proved  a  success ;  and  one  notable 
class  of  juniors,  at  their  reception,  wore  dresses  of 
their  own  liandiwork,  and  served  the  guests  with 
viands  of  their  own  cooking.  Millinery  is  taught,  also 
photography,  short-hand,  and  type-writing.  Some 
pupils  have  found  in  these  lines  their  natural  power, 
and  means  of  pecuniary  profit. 

Lasell  is  a  pioneer  in  another  direction.  In  1882 
Mr.  Alfred  Hemenway,  of  Boston,  gave  a  course  of 
lectures  explanatory  of  the  principles  of  common 
law.  This  has  become  a  yearly  course ;  but  now,  in 
1890,  he  also  sends  a  lady,  a  practitioner  of  Boston, 
who  especially  emphasizes  the  peculiarities  of  the 
law  as  applied  to  women.  The  girls  receive  her- 
simple,  untechnical  instruction  gladly.  They  begin 
to  understand  that  women  have  suffered  bitterly  from 
ignorance  on  these  points. 

With  all  the  practical  work,  the  standard  of  the 
school  has  constantly  risen.  Algebra  is  now  a  study 
of  the  preparatory  year,  and  the  demands  for 
entrance  to  the  freshman  class  are  on  a  scale  com- 
mensurate with  this  level.  The  work  in  history, 
literature,  English,  and  natural  sciences,  is  especially 
ample.  Mr.  William  T.  Rolfe  has  a  class  in  Sliak- 
speare,  and  eminent  specialists  in  various  depart- 
ments use  all  the  time  that  can  be  spared  in  the 
most  valuable  lectures,  free  to  all  pupils.  The  per- 
sistent refusal  to  gratify  a  natural  ambition  for  a 
large  school,  bears  its  fruit  in  the  more  careful 
attention  to  those  who  share  its  many  rich  oppor- 
tunities. 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  487 

The  pupils  edit  and  publish  a. monthly,  the  profits 
of  which  form  a  loan-fund  to  help  girls  in  education. 

The  pupils  are  not  required  to  pass  regular  or 
foreknown  examinations,  nor  to  recite  in  public  on 
any  occasion.  The  whole  plan  shows  intelligent  and 
fearless  consideration  of  the  serious  problems  of  the 
education  of  girls.  The  overflowing  patronage 
proves  the  estimate  of  thoughtful  parents  of  their 
solution  at  Lasell. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

HISTORIC   MILESTONES   OF   METHODISM  IN  NEW 
ENGLAND.      1736-1890. 

BY  REV.  FREDERICK  BURRILL  GRAVES. 

1736.  Charles  Wesley  was  the  first  Methodist 
preacher  ever  in  New  England,  or  in  Boston.  He 
preached  in  King's  Chapel. 

1740.  George  Whitefield  arrives  at  Newport,  R.  I., 
September  14. 

George  Whitefield  preached  before  the  Colonial 
Legislature  at  New  Haven,  October  23. 

1772.  Richard  Boardman  preached  in  Boston,  and 
gathered  a  few  together  into  a  society,  which,  how- 
ever, perished  after  his  departure. 

1775.  While  at  Charleston,  S.  C,  Jesse  Lee  had 
a  conversation  with  a  merchant's  clerk,  who  was  a 
New-Englander,  and  then  formed  the  determination 
to  carry  Methodism  into  New  England. 

1776.  Enoch  Mudge,  born  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  June 
21,  was  the  first  native  preacher  of  Methodism  in 
New  England. 

1781,  Joshua  Soule  (Bishop)  born  in  Bristol, 
Me.,  on  August  1. 

1784.  William  Black,  an  Englishman,  from  Nova 
Scotia,  preached  in  Boston,  October  17. 

[488] 


NEW  ENGLAND  ]VIETHODISM.  489 

1787.  Freeborn  Garrettson,  passing  through  Bos- 
ton, preached  there. 

Cornelius  Cook  preached  in  Norwalk,  Conn. 

1789.  Jesse  Lee  is  commissioned  by  the  New 
York  Conference  to  introduce  Methodism  into  New 
Engh\nd. 

Jesse  Lee  preached  his  first  sermon  in  New  Eng- 
land at  Norwalk,  Conn.,  June  17,  under  an  apple- 
tree  which  stood  on  the  green  border  of  a  public 
highway. 

Jesse  Lee  formed  the  first  class  in  New  England 
at  Stratfield,  Conn.,  September  25. 

The  first  circuit  in  New  England  embraced  Nor- 
walk, Fairfield,  Stratford,  Milford,  Reading,  Dan- 
bury,  Canaan,  besides  some  small  parishes,  like 
"Mutton  Lane." 

The  first  New  England  layman,  Aaron  Sanford, 
was  received  at  Reading,  Conn.,  December  28. 

1790.  Freeborn  Garrettson  on  his  way  to  Boston 
accompanied  by  "Black  Harry,"  is  overtaken  by 
Jesse  Lee,  bound  for  the  same  place. 

"  Black  Harry "  (Harry  Hosier)  was  the  negro 
servant  of  Bishop  Asburj^  but  an  eloquent  preacher 
and  exhorter.  He  travelled  with  Asbury,  Coke,  and 
Garrettson,  preaching  often  with  signal  power.  Yet 
lie  could  not  read. 

Jacob  Brush,  George  Roberts,  and  Daniel  Smith 
arrive  at  Dantown,  Conn.,  February  27,  to  assist  Lee 
in  his  New  England  labors. 

Jesse  Lee  preached  his  first  sermon  on  Boston 
Common  in  July.     Garrettson,  stopping   at  Provi- 


490  CENTENNIAL  OF 

dence,  had  missed  the  opportunity  to  supersede  his 
brother. 

Jesse  Lee  preached  in  tlie  house  of  Benjamin 
Johnson,  Ljnin,  Mass.,  December  7. 

The-  first  chapel  erected  in  New  England  was  at 
Easton  (formerly  Weston),  Conn.  It  was  called 
"Lee's  Chapel." 

The  first  presiding  elder  in  New  England  was 
Jesse  Lee,  appointed  by  the  Conference  of  1790,  held 
in  New  York.  The  second  presiding  elder  was  Jacob 
Brush. 

1791.  The  first  Methodist  society  in  Massachusetts 
was  formed  at  Lynn,  February  20. 

The  first  Methodist  church  in  Massachusetts  was 
dedicated  at  Lynn,  June  26. 

Asbury  enters  Connecticut.  He  preaches  at  New 
Haven,  to  a  congregation  in  which  is  Dr.  Ezra  Stiles, 
president  of  Yale  College. 

"One  district  and  part  of  a  second,  five  circuits 
and  seven  preachers,  constituted  then  the  ministerial 
arrangements  of  Methodism  for  New  England,  dur- 
ing the  ecclesiastical  year  1790-91."  This  is  a 
small  o-ain  :  but  when  it  is  remembered  that  Method- 
ist  ministers  were  characterized,  in  those  days,  as 
"wolves  in  sheep's  clothing,"  and  drummed  out  of 
the  villages  by  a  mob,  it  is  a  great  record. 

1792.  The  first  Methodist  society  was  organized 
in  Boston,  July  13. 

The  first  Conference  held  in  Massachusetts,  and 
probably  in  New  England,  was  at  Lynn,  Mass.,  be- 
ginning August  3. 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  491 

1793.  The  first  printed  attack  was  made  on  Meth- 
odists, in  a  pamphlet  containing  a  sermon  by  Rev. 
Mr.  Williams,  of  Tolland,  Me.,  and  a  letter  of  Dr. 
Huntington,  of  Coventry. 

The  first  love-feast  was  held  in  Boston,  July  30. 

Jesse  Lee  enters  Maine  for  the  first  time  on  Sep- 
tember 6. 

The  first  Methodist  sermon  preached  in  Maine 
was  "  in  a  little  village  called  Saco,"  by  Jesse  Lee, 
September  10. 

1794.  The  first  Methodist  chapel  erected  in  Rhode 
Island  was  at  Warren,  in  September. 

The  first  class  in  Maine  was  organized  at  Mon- 
mouth, in  November. 

The  first  administration  of  the  Eucharist  in  the 
Provi^lce  of  Maine  was  at  Readfield,  December  14. 

The  first  circuit  formed  in  Maine  was  known  as 
the  Readfield  Circuit. 

Philip  Wager  was  the  first  regular  itinerant 
preacher  in  Maine. 

The  first  layman  in  Maine  was  Daniel  Smith,  sub- 
sequently a  local  preacher. 

1795.  The  first  Methodist  church  dedicated  in 
Maine  Avas  at  Readfield,  June  21. 

The  corner-stone  of  the  first  Methodist  chapel  in 
Boston  was  laid  on  Methodist  Alley,  August  28. 

1796.  Zadok  Priest  was  the  first  itinerant  preacher 
who  died  in  New  England.  At  the  house  of  "  Father 
Newcomb,"  in  Norton,  Mass.,  he  breathed  his  last, 
June  22,  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven. 

The  first  Methodist  chapel  in  Boston  was  dedicated 
on  Metliodist  Alley,  May  15. 


492  CENTENNIAL  OF 

1797.  The  first  presiding  elder  of  the  Maine  Dis- 
trict was  Joshua  Taylor. 

Leonidas  L.  Haraline  (Bishop)  born  in  Burlington, 
Conn.,  May  10. 

1798.  The  first  Conference  held  in  Maine  was  at 
Readfield,  beginning  August  29. 

1800.  Jesse  Lee  preached  the  dedicatory  sermon 
of  the  church  at  Kent's  Hill,  Me.,  where,  twenty-one 
years  later,  the  Maine  Wesleyan  Seminary  was  estab- 
lished. 

Methodism  was  first  preached  in  Vermont  at 
Lunenburg. 

The  first  Methodist  missionary  to  Africa  was  con- 
verted at  Hallowell,  Me.,  under  the  preaching  of 
Epaphras  Kibby. 

1801.  Isaac  Rich,  a  distinguished  patron  of  educa- 
tion, born  at  Wellfleet,  Mass.,  October  24. 

1802.  The  first  camp-meeting  Iield  in  New  Eng- 
land was  at  Haddam,  Conn.,  on  the  Middletown 
Circuit  (Lorenzo  Dow's  Journal  gives  it  1805,  at 
Bolton,  Conn.). 

Jacob  Sleeper,  one  of  the  greatest  philanthropists 
of  the  last  generation  in  New  England,  born  in  New 
Castle,  Me.,  November  21. 

1803.  The  first  session  of  the  New  England  Con- 
ference that  was  held  in  Boston  was  in  the  church 
on  Methodist  Alley. 

The  first  preaching  in  New  Hampshire  was  at 
Dal  ton. 

1806.  The  corner-stone  of  the  Bromfield  Street 
Church  was  laid,  April  15. 


NEW    ENGLAND    METHODISM.  493 

1807.  Edmund  Storer  Janes  (Bishop)  born  in 
Sheffield,  Mass.,  April  27. 

Tlie  first  meeting-house  on  the  Vermont  District 
was  erected  at  Barnard. 

1812.  Osman  Oleander  Baker  (Bishop)  born  in 
Marlow,  N.  H.,  July  30. 

Davis  Wasgatt  Clark  (Bishop)  born  on  Mount 
Desert,  Me.,  February  25. 

1816.  On  the  last  day  of  March  Bishop  Asbury 
died.  "  When  he  commenced  his  labors  in  this 
country  there  were  about  six  hundred  members ; 
when  he  fell,  it  was  Yictoriousl}^  at  the  head  of  two 
hundred  and  twelve  thousand." 

1818.  The  Wesleyan  Academy  was  established  at 
Newmarket,  N.  H. ;  subsequently  removed  to  Wil- 
braham  in  1825. 

Wilbur  Fisk,  the  great  Methodist  educational 
pioneer  in  New  England,  enters  the  ministry. 

1819.  The  name  of  Edward  T.  Taylor  (Father 
Taylor)  appears  in  the  Minutes  for  the  first  time. 

1820.  Erastus  O.  Haven  (Bishop)  born  in  Boston, 
November  1. 

The  first  New  England  Oonference  Minutes  were 
published  July  1. 

1821.  Gilbert  Haven  (Bishop)  born  in  Maiden, 
Mass.,  September  19. 

1823.  "  This  [the  formation  of  the  '  Society  for 
Giving  and  Receiving  Religious  Intelligence  ']  gave 
rise  to  Zio7i's  Herald,  printed  by  Moore  and  Prouse 
under  the  direction  of  the  committee  of  the  society 
of  which  Elijah  Hedding  was  president.     The  first 


494  CENTENNIAL  OF 

number  was  issued  Januaiy  9, 1823,  ou  a  small  royal 
sheet,  the  pages  measuring  only  nine  by  sixteen 
inches.  Such  was  the  origin  of  the  first  weekly 
publication  of  Methodism  in  the  world  —  a  paper 
which  has  had  an  unsurpassed  power  on  the  great 
questions  and  crises  of  the  church." 

1825.     The  Maine  Conference  was  organized. 

1828.  Willard  Francis  Mallalieu  (Bishop)  born  in 
Sutton,  Mass.,  December  11. 

1831.  The  Wesleyan  University  obtained  its 
charter. 

Henry  W.  Warren  (Bishop)  born  in  Williams- 
burg, Mass.,  January  4. 

The  Boston  Wesleyan  Association  formed. 

The  first  total  abstinence  address  delivered  in 
New  England  was  by  Mark  Trafton,  at  Rumford, 
Maine. 

l8oJ.  "  Camp-meeting  John  "  Allen  received  on 
trial  in  the  Maine  Conference. 

An  anti-slavery  society  organized  by  the  New  Eng- 
land Conference,  sitting  at  Lynn,  Mass.  The  New 
Hampshire  Conference  also  formed  one. 

1839.  The  first  meeting  of  Methodists  in  East 
Boston,  September  29. 

1841.  "Providence  Conference  Seminary  "  (now 
East  Greenwich  Academy)  established. 

1846.  The  New  England  Education  Society  was 
organized. 

1849.  The  Maine  Wesleyan  Board  of  Education 
incorporated  in  August. 

1851.  The  New  England  Methodist  Book  Deposi- 
tory established. 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  495 

1862.  Probably  the  first  formal  action  taken  in 
New  England  concerning  lay  delegation  to  General 
Conference,  was  by  the  New  England  Conference, 
when  it  was  voted  that  the  preachers  should  take  a 
count  of  the  legal  voters  on  lay  delegation. 

1866.  The  Methodist  Centenary  Convention  held 
in  Boston,  June  5-7. 

1867.  The  Boston  Theological  Seminary  was  re- 
organized from  the  old  ]\Iethodist  General  Biblical 
Institute,  in  Concord,  N.  H. 

1868.  The  Boston  Methodist  Social  Union  was 
established,  December  13. 

1869.  The  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
was  organized  in  Boston. 

Boston  University  incorporated.  The  present  en- 
dowment of  the  University  is  a  million  and  a  half. 

1871.  The  first  New  England  Conference  to  elect 
lay  delegates  to  the  General  Conference  was  the 
East  Maine;  and  Eliphalet  Clark,  M.D.,  was  the  most 
prominent  and  tireless  advocate  of  the  measure  in 
the  State. 

1873.  The  semi-centennial  of  Zions  Herald  cele- 
brated. 

1880.  The  New  England  ]\Iethodist  Historical 
Society  was  organized  May  3. 

Bishop  Gilbert  Haven  died,  January  3.  "  Meth- 
odism, which  had  in  New  England  only  six  hundred 
members  in  the  first  year  of  Jesse  Lee's  ministry 
here,  and  which  numbered  at  the  death  of  Bishop 
Asbury  two  hundred  and  twelve  thousand  in  the 
whole  country,  could   count    up  a   grand   total   of 


496  NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM. 

1,755,018  communicants  when  Bishop  Gilbert  Haven 
breathed  his  last,  reckoning  only  the  particular  body 
of  Methodists  to  which  he  gave  his  great  and  useful 
life."  When  the  whole  world,  with  its  bright  green 
spots  of  Methodism,  comes  into  the  field  of  vision, 
how  marvellous  and  wonderful,  under  God,  has  been 
the  work  accomplished  ! 

1883.     The  Wesleyan  home  at  Newton  organized. 

1886.  The  fine  estate  on  Mount  Vernon  Street 
was  purchased  and  remodelled  at  a  total  cost  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty  thousand  dollars,  for  the  use  of  the 
School  of  Theology  of  Boston  University. 

1889.  The  New  England  Deaconess  Home  incor- 
porated. 

The  indebtedness  on  People's  Church,  Boston, 
entirely  cancelled. 

1890.  Centennial  celebration  of  Jesse  Lee's  preach- 
ing on  Boston  Common,  in  July. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

TYPICAL    CHURCHES. 
BROMFIELD    STREET    M.    E.   CHURCH,   BOSTON,   MASS. 

The  first  Methodist  class  in  Boston  was  formed 
on  July  13,  1792,  in  the  house  of  Samuel  Burrill.  In 
August  of  the  same  year,  the  "Methodist  Religious 
Society  in  Boston  "  was  formed.  The  "  First  Method- 
ist Preaching  House  "  in  Boston,  located  on  Methodist 
Alley,  was  dedicated  in  1796,  but  was  not  entirely 
completed  until  1800.  In  1806  the  building  became 
too  strait  for  the  number  who  desired  to  worship 
there,  so  the  Quarterly  Conference  authorized  the 
trustees  to  procure  a  lot,  and  erect  a  second  chapel. 

The  lot  at  the  corner  of  Park  and  Tremont  streets, 
where  now  stands  the  famous  Park  Street  Church, 
was  available ;  but  the  trustees,  as  a  measure  of 
economy,  bought  a  lot  on  "Broomfield's  lane,"  and 
proceeded  to  erect  a  chapel.  The  building,  costing 
seven  thousand  dollars,  was  completed  in  a  remark- 
ably short  time,  and  was  dedicated  Nov.  19,  1806. 
The  dedication  sermon  was  preached  by  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Merwin. 

The  difficulties  between  the  United  States  and 
several  of  the  governments  of  Europe,  leading  to 
various  political  complications,  which  seriously  crip- 

[497] 


498  CENTENNIAL   OF 

pled  the  business  of  New  England,  brought  this 
young  society  into  sore  straits  financially,  notwith- 
standing the  benevolence  of  that  prince  of  laymen, 
Amos  Binney. 

In  the  Journal  of  the  General  Conference  of  1808, 
we  find  the  following :  "  A  petition  was  laid  before 
the  Conference  from  the  new  Methodist  meeting- 
house in  Boston,  stating  their  great  embarrassment, 
and  praying  relief  in  any  way  the  General  Confer- 
ence may  devise.  Brother  George  Pickering  prayed 
the  Conference  to  appoint  a  committee  to  devise 
ways  and  means  for  the  relief  of  the  trustees  of  the 
Boston  meeting-house,  and  report  to  the  Conference. 
Carried." 

A  few  days  thereafter,  the  following  record  appears : 
"  The  committee  in  the  case  of  the  Boston  Meeting- 
House  reported  as  follows,  viz., —  'That  the  Confer- 
ence agree  that  Brother  Pickering,  or  some  other 
person,  be  appointed  to  raise  a  subscription  in  any 
part  of  the  connexion  to  assist  in  defraying  the  enor- 
mous debt  on  the  new  church :  and  that  the  Confer- 
ence give  a  certificate  specifying  that  they  have 
recommended  the  measure.'  Moved,  from  the  chair, 
that  a  subscription  be  opened  for  the  relief  of  our 
brethren  in  their  difficulties  concerning  the  Boston 
meeting-house,  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  all  the 
presiding  elders.     Carried." 

Thus  the  South  was  again  called  to  the  aid  of  New 
England.  Rev.  George  Pickering,  to  whom  was 
given  the  task  of  soliciting  help,  went  as  far  south 
as  the    Delaware    River,   and   returned   with   three 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  499. 

thousand  three  hundred  dollars.  Charleston,  S.  C, 
sent  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars;  and  the  New 
England  Conference,  at  its  session  in  Barnard,  Vt., 
subscribed  two  hundred  and  forty  dollars.  Notwith- 
standing these  contributions,  the  debt  increased  until 
it  reached  eighteen  thousand  dollars.  The  writer 
does  not  know  the  causes  which  produced  this  re- 
sult. This  debt  was  removed  in  1815-16,  under  the 
ministry  of  Elijah  Hedding  and  Daniel  Fillmore. 
The  first  organ  was  placed  in  the  church  in  1835. 
The  building  was  remodelled  and  partly  rebuilt 
in  1848.  This  involved  another  debt,  which  was 
removed  during  the  pastorate  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Cummings.  This  building  was  destroyed  by  fire, 
Dec.  7,  1863.  The  present  edifice  was  completed 
the  next  year.  Another,  and  the  last,  indebtedness 
was  removed  during  the  pastorate  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Ken  dig. 

Many  eminent  ministers  have  been  pastors  at  Brom- 
field  Street,  and  many,  converted  at  its  altars,  have 
gone  out  to  proclaim  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation, 
in  various  parts  of  tlie  world.  There  is  probably 
not  a  Methodist  church  in  Boston,  which  Bromfield 
Street  has  not  helped  to  build.  Wesleyan  Univer- 
sity looked  to  this  church  for  years  ;  and  out  of  it, 
largely  by  means  of  the  liberality  of  Isaac  Rich  and 
Jacob  Sleeper,  came  Boston  University. 

Business  has  now  shut  the  church  building  in  on 
every  side,  and  the  character  of  the  work  has  mate- 
rially changed;  but  we  confidently  look  for  a  grand 
future  yet  for  this  historic  old  Church. 


500  CENTENNIAL   OF 

ST.  John's  m.  e.  church,  south  boston,  mass. 

BY   REV.  FREDERICK   BURRILL  GRAVES  AND  THE   EDITOR. » 

The  history  of  a  church  organization  i.s  generallj'- 
the  liistory  of  a  community,  but  the  history  of  St. 
John's  is  that  of  several.  Its  remotest  roots  rest 
back  in  the  religious  soil  of  nearly  eighty  years  ago. 
The  origin  was  humble,  the  struggles  many,  and  the 
triumphs  not  few.  In  1810,  \Yhen  South  Boston  was 
a  pasture,  in  the  home  of  a  Mrs.  Robinson,  an  aged 
widow  lady,  religious  meetings  were  held  under  the 
leadership  of  Bro.  Thomas  C.  Peirce,  of  Milton,  the 
father  of  Dr.  Peirce,  late  editor  of  Zions  Herald. 
He  worked  at  his  trade  as  a  carpenter  during  the 
week,  and  preaclied  on  the  Sabbath.  Soon  the  house 
of  Mrs.  Robinson  becoming  unsatisfactory,  the  meet- 
ings were  held  for  a  few  months,  in  1811,  in  a  small 
building  rented  for  the  purpose  ;  and  this  in  turn 
proving  too  small,  Bro.  Peirce,  with  his  own  hands, 
built  a  small  house  of  worship  on  the  land  now  occu- 
pied by  the  Hawes  Place  Church.  For  four  years, 
as  a  local  preacher,  he  successfully  ministered  to  tlie 
people  of  South  Boston  ;  then  joining  the  New  Eng- 
land Conference,  he  was  stationed  elsewhere.  When 
building  the  church  structure,  he  expected  to  pay  for 
it  by  the  weekly  contributions  and  the  sale  of  five- 
dollar  sliares.  But  he  was  disappointed,  for  many 
years  afterwards  he  wrote :  "  All  the  support  I  had 
for  my  labor  was  a  public  contribution  on  tlie  Sab- 

'  This  sketch  is  condensed  from  an  article  in  Zion's  Herald,  written  by 
Rev.  Mr.  Graves,  with  additions  by  the  editor. 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  501 

bath,  which  usually  amounted  to  from  seventy-five 
cents  to  a  dollar,  with  a  week's  board  now  and  then." 
The  next  pastor,  Rev.  Zephaniah  Wood,  who  became 
infatuated  by  the  strange  doctrines  inculcated  in 
"  Worcester's  Bible  "  published  at  the  time,  carried 
bodily  the  church  property  and  a  large  majority  of 
the  society  with  him,  into  Congregationalism.  Now 
such  is  the  origin,  not  only  of  the  First  Methodist 
Cliurch,  but  the  first  church  of  any  denomination,  in 
South  Boston.  The  Methodists  chopped  down  the 
trees,  made  a  clearing,  built  a  church,  and  the  Con- 
gregationalists  stepped  in  and  enjoyed  it.  But  God's 
work  failed  not.  Mrs.  Robinson's  sitting-room  is 
metamorphosed  into  a  magnificent  church,  and  Bro. 
Peirce  is  the  pioneer  of  a  long  line  of  Methodist 
preachers. 

There  was  an  interregnum  of  about  eleven  years, 
when  another  effort  was  made  to  establish  a  Method- 
ist Church,  and  a  suitable  building  was  erected.  The 
principal  supporters  of  this  new  enterprise  were  the 
workmen  employed  in  the  glass-works ;  but  shortly 
afterwards  the  proprietors  failed,  and  with  them  the 
church.  And  this  time  the  Baptists  took  possession. 
So  strong,  however,  were  the  Methodist  affinities  of 
some,  that  meetings  were  continued  in  private  houses, 
until  1834  the  third  attempt  was  made.  A  place  for 
holding  the  meetings  was  secured  at  the  corner  of 
Broadway  and  A  Street.  No  less  a  personage  than 
Rev.  Abel  Stevens  preached  the  first  sermon  to  a 
congregation  of  eight  people.  From  one  place  to 
another,  beset  with  difficulties  on  every  hand,  the 


502  CENTENNIAL  OF 

few  migrated  until  the  famous  year  of  1839,  the  cen- 
tenary of  Methodism,  when  it  was  determined  to 
build  a  suitable  structure.  On  the  19th  of  June, 
1840,  therefore,  the  Centenary  Church  was  estab- 
lished, prospered,  and  was  enlarged  about  ten  years 
later.  At  this  juncture,  after  twenty  years  of  per- 
sistence, the  denomination  had  obtained  a  permanent 
footing,  which  was  to  secure  for  it  a  wider  useful- 
ness and  a  larger  following.  Indeed,  so  large  had 
the  church  become,  that  it  was  thought  best  to  estab- 
lish a  second  church,  and  the  Dorchester  Street  was 
founded.  The  leaders  in  this  movement  were  Martin 
L.  Whitcher,  William  H.  Miller,  F.  M.  Knights,  D. 
P.  Nichols,  S.  C.  Fisk,  and  Seth  K.  Crowell. 

During  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  J.  L.  Hanaford,  at 
the  Centenary,  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  erect  a  new 
structure.  Broadway  was  the  location  selected.  On 
this  spot  the  daisies  once  blew,  and  English  troopers 
galloped  hotly  over  the  green  grass.  But  it  was  per- 
haps a  mistake  that  there  was  not  effected  a  union 
of  the  Centenary  and  Dorchester  Street  Churches ; 
but  ultimately,  as  will  be  seen,  such  a  union  became 
necessary  to  the  complete  success  of  Methodism. 
Here  again,  however,  disaster  was  met,  which  crip- 
pled the  church.  The  new  structure  was  finished, 
except  setting  the  windows  and  putting  in  the  pews, 
when  the  tenific  gale  of  September,  1869,  toppled 
the  spire  upon  the  roof,  crushing  it  and  levelling  the 
church  to  its  foundation.  The  members  of  the 
church  and  congregation,  the  community,  and  the 
contractors,  rallied,  however,  and  rebuilt  the  present 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  503 

structure.  In  the  spring  of  1870  it  was  dedicated, 
and  the  first  pastor  was  the  distinguished  Rev.  Mark 
Trafton,  who  on  the  occasion  wrote  a  hymn  whose 
opening  stanza  indicated  the  breadth  of  his  mind 
and  the  depth  of  his  heart :  — 

"  We  rear  this  house,  O  God,  to  thee, 
Not  here  Thy  presence  to  confine; 
For  heaven's  broad,  bending  canopy, 
Unmeasured,  unexplored,  is  Thine." 

The  new  church  was  erected  at  a  cost  of  sixty- 
thousand  dolUirs,  only  a  third  of  which  was  paid, 
leaving  a  large  interest  debt  to  be  annually  met, 
which  was  to  be  a  source  of  discouragement.  Suc- 
ceeding the  pastorate  of  Bro.  Trafton  came  such 
princes  as  Revs.  Willard  F.  Mallalieu  (now  Bishop), 
Lewis  B.  Bates,  John  H.  Twombly,  and  Joseph  H. 
Mansfield,  who,  with  one  exception,  was  the  last 
regular  pastor  of  Broadway.  It  was  in  the  pastorate 
of  Rev.  J.  H.  Twombly  that  over  a  third  of  tlie  debt 
was  paid,  of  which  Bro.  M.  H.  Barstow  gave  one-half. 
This  lightened  the  load,  and  succeeding  pastorates 
were  then  made  more  spiritually  successful.  The 
following  officiated  as  pastors  of  the  old  Centenary 
Church:  Revs.  Chester  Field,  Ralph  W.  Allen, 
George  W.  Mansfield,  Edward  A.  Manning,  Jeremiah 
L.  Hanaford,  whose  work  was  in  each  of  their  ways 
successful  and  beneficial  to  the  end  in  view, — the 
upbuilding  of  souls  in  Christ,  and  so  the  upbuilding 
of  the  Church  which  is  His  body.  To  tell  all  the 
struggles,  the  trials,  the  sacrifices,  the  joys,  the  bless- 
ings, the  feastings,  would  enlarge  too  much. 


504  CENTENNIAL  OP 

Meanwhile  the  Dorchester  Street  Church  had  been 
steadily  growing  and  prospering  under  such  working 
})astorates  as  those  of  Revs.  James  M.  Thomas,  Chester 
Field,  Edward  W.  Virgin,  William  Butler,  William 
McDonald,  F.  K.  Stratton,  John  C.  Smith,  Jesse 
Wagner,  Nelson  Stutson,  N.  T.  Whitaker,  and  M.  E. 
Wright.  A  glance  at  the  above  names  will  start 
many  a  story  of  courage,  of  fidelity,  of  work,  of  pul- 
pit influence,  which  must  down,  like  Hamlet's  ghost, 
else  it  will  cover  too  much  space.  Many  of  them 
have  long  been  on  the  Conference  roll,  and  their 
names  are  inextricably  interwoven  with  the  history 
of  the  New  England  Conference ;  one,  like  Dr.  But- 
ler, has  left  the  impress  of  his  power  in  lands  far 
remote  from  ours,  but  which  will  abide,  as  well,  the 
day  of  His  coming. 

Repeated  efforts  were  made  to  unite  the  Dorchester 
Street  and  Broadway  churches,  but  without  success. 
The  concentration  of  forces,  as  in  an  army,  it  was 
thought,  would  increase  the  power  and  usefulness  of 
Methodism.  The  spreading-out  process  has  generally 
resulted  in  only  indifferent  success  to  the  separate 
churches.  One  church  for  a  definite  area  miglit  be  a 
good  general  plan.  But  finally,  about  three  years 
ago,  while  Rev.  M.  E.  Wright  was  pastor  of  Dorches- 
ter Street,  and  Rev.  G.  A.  Crawford  was  supplying 
the  Broadway  pulpit,  a  union  was  effected,  to  the 
benefit  of  all.  Besides  bringing  many  noble  men 
and  women  to  enlarge  tlie  membership  and  power  of 
the  Broadway  Church,  the  other  church  brought 
what  was  so  sorely  needed  at  the  time  —  four  thou- 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  505 

sand  six  hundred  dollars  towards  the  debt.  Bishop 
Foster  christened  the  new  and  promising  church 
"St.  John's,"  which  appropriate  title  it  will  always 
bear.  Rev.  M.  E.  Wright,  as  the  old  pastor  of  the 
Dorchester  Street  Church,  was  appointed  to  have 
charge  of  the  new  one.  Rev.  G.  A.  Crawford,  who 
had  been  appointed  financial  agent  by  the  trustees, 
still  retained  that  office,  and  when  he  handed  in  his 
accounts,  twenty-six  thousand  dollars  of  the  debt 
was  cancelled.  And  while  speaking  of  this,  it  may 
be  interesting  to  know  that  this  sum  was  not  raised 
without  active  work  by  Bro.  Crawford,  and  a  great 
deal  of  self-sacrifice  on  the  part  of  those  of  whose  life 
the  church  was  a  vital  part.  A  good  lady  of  three- 
score and  ten,  who  kept  boarders,  subscribed  fifty 
dollars ;  and  in  order  to  pay  it,  discharged  her  cook. 
By  such  Christ-like  devotion  the  property  was  saved, 
to  be  used  for  many  years,  we  trust,  for  the  glory  of 
God  and  the  spread  of  his  kingdom. 

With  the  disappearance  of  that  terrible  debt  and 
the  union  of  the  two  churches,  a  new  era  began. 
The  people  took  courage  and  began  to  push  the 
work.  The  two  years'  pastorate  of  Rev.  R.  L. 
Greene,  D.D.,  was  marked  with  grand  success. 
When  he  was  removed  because  of  the  greater  need 
of  People's  Church,  his  departure  was  much  regretted. 
Dr.  S.  L.  Baldwin  succeeded  him,  but  was  soon  re- 
moved to  the  office  of  our  Missionary  Society,  in 
New  York.  Not  long  after,  the  Rev.  L.  A.  Banks 
was  transferred  from  the  West,  and  given  this  impor- 
tant place.     Under  his  administration,  St.  John's  is 


506  CENTENNIAL   OP 

demonstrating  its  right  to  a  place  in  the  community. 
Here  we  have  the  hirgest  membership  in  the  New 
Eiighind  Conference.  The  story,  in  its  details,  would 
read  like  a  romance.  "Then  he  arose,  and  rebuked 
the  winds  and  the  sea ;  and  there  was  a  great  calm." 

TREMONT  STREET  M.   E.  CHURCH,  BOSTON,  MASS. 

Who  would  think  of  associating  Concord  and 
Canton  Streets  with  the  country  ?  Yet  it  is  not  so 
many  years  ago  that  the  dwellers  in  that  region  were 
few,  and  the  village  located  there  was  known  as 
"  Hardscrabble."  Here  lived  a  number  of  loyal 
Methodists.  The  nearest  churches  of  their  own 
denomination  were  on  Church  Street  and  Warren 
Street.  They  must  have  a  place  nearer  their  homes. 
Meetings  were  first  held,  in  184G,  in  a  small  hall  on 
the  corner  of  Canton  Street  and  Suffolk  Street,  now 
Shawmut  Avenue.  Preaching  services  were  only 
occasional  until  the  next  year,  when  a  church  was 
regularly  organized,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Peirce 
appointed  pastor. 

The  hall  was  not  long  sufficient  for  the  demands 
made  upon  it,  and  a  church-building  was  erected  on 
the  corner  of  Suffolk  Street  and  Williams  Street,  now 
Pelham.  There  were  in  Boston,  at  this  time,  seven 
other  Methodist  churches,  some  of  whose  members, 
moving  into  this  part  of  the  city,  joined  the  new 
church,  and  added  very  materially  to  its  strength. 
Among  the  valuable  accessions,  at  about  this  time, 
were  Noah  K.  Skinner,  Charles  W.   Peirce,   Pliny 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  507 

Nickerson,  Alden  Speare,  James  P.  Magee,  Harum 
Merrill,  Amos  B.  Merrill,  and  Alexander  Campbell. 
Some  of  these  3'et  abide :  others  have  "  crossed  the 
flood." 

The  name  of  the  church  was  changed,  in  1852,  to 
Hedding  Church,  in  honor  of  Bishop  Hedding.  The 
last  pastor  of  this  church  was  Rev.  Henry  W.  War- 
ren, now  Bishop.  It  was  during  his  pastorate  that 
it  became  evident  that  still  larger  accommodations 
would  be  necessary,  and  so  the  edifice  on  Tremont 
Street  was  begun.  The  corner-stone  was  laid  July 
30,  1860,  Bishop  Baker  presiding  over  the  ceremo- 
nies. The  church  was  dedicated  January  1,  1862, 
Rev.  John  P.  Newman  preaching  in  the  forenoon, 
and  Rev.  Thomas  Sewall  in  the  evening;  Bishop 
Baker  taking  part  in  the  dedication. 

The  picture,  to  be  found  elsewhere  in  this  book, 
hardly  does  justice  to  what  is,  in  many  respects,  the 
best  and  most  churclily  of  Methodist  church  edifices 
in  Boston.  Standing  well  within  the  limits  of  a 
large  lot,  it  has  light  and  air  from  every  side.  It  is 
a  refreshing  sight  in  summer,  surrounded  by  green- 
sward, and  half  hidden  by  trees  and  vines. 

The  pulpit  of  this  church  has  always  commanded 
the  best  talent.  The  first  pastor  was  Rev.  L.  D. 
Barrows,  the  only  one  of  its  pastors  not  now  living 
and  in  active  service.  Following  him  came  William 
S.  Studley,  for  two  terms,  J.  A.  M.  Chapman,  George 
S.  Hare,  Daniel  Steele,  John  E.  Cookman,  W.  E. 
Cookman,  W.  E.  Huntington,  S.  F.  Jones,  and  the 
present  pastor,  W.  N.  Brodbeck.    Revs.  L.  T.  Town- 


508  CENTENNIAL  OF 

send   and    W.    McDonald    liave    also    supplied    the 
pulpit. 

Tlie  history  of  the  church  is  one  of  which  no  man 
need  be  ashamed,  and  it  bids  fair  to  do  jet  a  grander 
work  in  the  years  to  come. 


PEOPLE  S  CHURCH,   BOSTON,  MASS. 

Not  to  know  something  about  the  People's  Church 
is  to  prove  one's  self  unknown.  Has  the  name  not 
rung  in  the  ears  of  all  Methodists  for  a  dozen  years  ? 
Conceived  in  the  fertile  brain  of  Rev.  J.  W.  Ham- 
ilton, D.D.,  it  yet  had,  in  title  to  church  property,  in 
officiary  and  membership,  a  predecessor  on  Church 
Street.  Tlie  Church  Street  building  was  the  tliird 
Metliodist  Chapel  erected  in  Boston.  Here  great 
battles  were  fought  and  great  victories  won.  Here 
representatives  of  the  "Thundering  Legion  "  divided 
their  time  between  calling  sinners  to  repentance  and 
making  assaults  upon  the  prevalent  theology  of  New 
England. 

In  April,  1876,  Dr.  Hamilton  was  sent  to  this 
church,  it  being  understood  that  he  Avas  to  make  an 
attempt  to  carry  out,  in  this  locality,  the  plan  of  a 
church  for  the  masses,  —  a  plan  which  had  so  long 
filled  his  heart  and  thouglit.  The  members  of  the 
church  were  ready  for  the  enterprise.  A  lot  of  land 
was  secured  at  the  corner  of  Columbus  Avenue  and 
Berkeley  Street,  and  work  on  the  new  edifice  was 
immediately  commenced.  The  corner-stone  of  the 
chapel  and  parsonage  was  laid  May  27, 1877,  by  Rev. 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  609 

D.  Sherman,  D.D.,  presiding  elder  of  Boston  dis- 
trict. 

To  tell  the  whole  story  of  the  subsequent  years  of 
toil  and  sacrifice,  on  the  part  of  all  connected  with 
this  enterprise,  would  be  to  exceed  the  limits  of  this 
book.  "Through  tribulations  deep,  the  way  to  glory 
is."  By  every  honorable  means,  the  indefatigable 
pastor  sought  to  arouse  an  interest  in  the  work,  and 
to  secure  a  practical  response  to  his  appeals.  The 
very  life  of  the  workers  was  wrought  into  the  fabric 
of  the  new  church. 

The  corner-stone  of  the  church-building  itself  was 
not  laid  until  July  3,  1882,  and  the  building  was  not 
opened  for  worship  until  Sunday,  February  10,  1884. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  a  "  feast  of  fat  things," 
lasting  eight  days.  Bishop  Simpson  preached  the 
first  sermon,  which  was  his  last.  The  revision  of 
the  stenographer's  report  of  that  discourse  was  the 
last  work  that  that  beloved  Chief  Pastor  did.  He  was 
followed,  in  this  jubilee,  by  such  an  array  of  talent 
as  has  seldom  graced  any  public  occasion.  All  felt 
that  now  a  great  undertaking  was  securel}^  upon  its 
feet,  and  that,  henceforth,  it  would  "  run  and  be 
glorified." 

In  1885  the  Rev.  Charles  E.  Davis  succeeded 
Brother  Hamilton  in  the  pastorate.  For  three  years 
he  wrought  nobly,  demonstrating  both  the  sincerity 
of  his  devotion  and  the  soundness  of  his  judgment. 
He,  in  turn,  was  succeeded,  in  1888,  by  the  present 
pastor.  Rev.  R.  L.  Greene,  D.D.,  under  whose  admin- 
istration the  mortgage  has  been  paid,  and  the  church- 


510  NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM. 

building  finally  and  truly  dedicated.  By  the  benev- 
olence of  Brother  E.  H.  Dunn,  of  Boston,  the  church 
now  has  a  magnificent  organ. 

The  writer  regrets  exceedingly  that  the  limitations 
of  space  should  make  impossible  the  full  sketch, 
which  might,  at  least,  do  partial  justice  to  this  great 
enterprise.  But  the  history  of  People's  Church  has 
just  begun.  Out  of  the  conflict  it  comes  purified 
and  invigorated,  and  with  full  faith  in  its  future 
under  the  blessing  of  God. 

Methodism  has  reared,  in  the  heart  of  Boston,  the 
first  church  that  was  called  or  could  justly  be  called, 
The  People's  Church. 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

TYPICAL  CHUKCHES  —  continued. 
COMMON   STREET  M.   E.   CHURCH,   LYNN,  MASS. 

REV.  J.   D.  PICKLES,  PH.D. 

Lynn  Common  Church  was  organized  by  Rev. 
Jesse  Lee,  February  20,  1791.  The  original  mem- 
bers were  eight,  viz. :  Enocli  Mudge,  Sr.,  and  his 
wife  Lydia  ;  Benjamin  Johnson,  Sr.,  and  his  wife  ; 
Mary  Lewis ;  Hannah  Leigh ;  Ruth  Johnson  and 
Deborah  Mansfield,  afterwards  Ramsdel.  The  first 
sermon  was  preached  on  the  fifth  of  the  previous 
December,  in  Mr.  Johnson's  house. 

By  the  following  May  the  membership  had  in- 
creased to  fifty-eight.  Hundreds  flocked  to  hear  the 
new,  fresh,  and  powerful  presentation  of  the  gospel. 
From  the  house  they  adjourned  to  the  barn ;  and,  in 
just  six  months  from  the  opening  sermon,  the  founda- 
tions of  a  small  church  —  thirty-four  by  forty-four 
feet  —  were  laid.  The  building  was  pushed  with 
such  energy  that  it  was  dedicated  twelve  days  from 
its  beginning !  It  had  plain  seats,  and  was  not 
lathed  and  plastered  for  several  years. 

The  church  had  alternating  seasons  of  prosperity 
and  declension,  but  gradually  forged   ahead.     The 

[511] 


512  CENTENNIAL   OF 

second  house  of  worsliip  was  commenced  in  1812, 
and  dedicated  June  3,  1813,  by  the  pastor,  afterward 
Bishop  Soule.  Improvements  were  subsequently 
made,  during  various  pastorates,  notably  that  of  Dr. 
\Vm.  R.  Clarke,  — 1858,  —  when  enlargements  and 
re-arrangements  necessitated  closing  the  church  for 
a  time. 

The  church  continued  to  prosper,  until  it  outgrew 
its  quarters,  and  agitation  began  for  the  building  of 
the  third  and  present  edifice.  After  the  usual  delays, 
discussions,  and  disruptions,  the  present  magnificent 
brick  structure  was  erected  and  dedicated,  in  1879, 
during  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  C.  D.  Hills,  D.D.  A 
comfortable  parsonage  forms  a  part  of  the  present 
property  held  by  the  trustees,  and  the  value  of  the 
whole  is  about  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The 
present  membership  is  about'  seven  hundred. 

During  the  progress  of  the  century.  Common 
Street  has  thrown  off  branches  as  follows  :  St.  Paul's, 
Saugus,  South  Street,  Danvers,  Maple  Street,  Boston 
Street.  Trinity,  Wyoma,  St.  Luke's,  and  the  High- 
land Church  are  later  products  of  the  parent  stock. 
Swampscott  and  other  towns  near  by,  and,  indeed, 
many  others  in  the  Conference,  owe  much  to  the  aid 
and  stimulus  given  by  this  old  church.  She  will 
soon  call  her  children  and  grandchildren  home  to 
Thanksgiving  rejoicings  for  a  hundred  years  of 
organized  life. 

Some  of  the  noblest  men  in  Methodism,  among 
them  those  who  afterwards  were  Bishops  Hedding, 
Soule,  aud  Mallalieu,  have  served  at  her  altars.     She 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  513 

stands  at  the  threshold  of  her  second  century,  with 
"neither  her  eye  dimmed,  nor  her  natural  force 
abated ; "  and,  from  her  commanding  position  in  the 
heart  of  the  community,  she  expects  to  do  and  dare 
great  things  for  God. 

NORWALK,   CONN. 

"  Caesar  invaded  and  conquested  Gaul,  but  greater 
than  that  was  Jesse  Lee's  invasion  and  conquest  of 
the  intellectual  and  ecclesiastical  empire  of  New 
England.  He  did  not  subjugate  these  forces  to  him- 
self, but  by  the  moral  and  religious  imjjact  he  gave 
them,  they  became  new  forces  in  societ}^  and  have 
never  since  fallen  into  their  former  state  of  desuetude. 
They  never  will.  Methodism  has  been  their  reju- 
venation. She  did  not  enter  the  new  field  for  the 
purpose  of  supplanting  the  churches  already  there, 
but  rather  '  to  hold  the  ancient  faith  to  its  best  tra- 
ditions, give  shape  and  vigor  to  its  evangelical 
agencies,  and  so  help  it  on  to  the  power  it  has  be- 
come in  the  Christianity  of  these  times.'  The  task 
which  Methodism  thus  undertook  was  a  most  difficult 
one.  It  was  beset  with  *  numerous  and  stubboi-n 
obstacles.  But  Mr.  Lee,  nothing  daunted,  set  out 
from  New  York  in  the  name  of  God,  and  on  the 
eleventh  of  June,  1789,  entered  Connecticut.  The 
following  is  Mr.  Lee's  own  account  of  the  introduc- 
tion of  Methodism  into  Norwalk  : —  . 

" '  Wednesday,  June  seventeenth,  I  set  off  to  make  a  further 
tour  in  Connecticut  than  any  of  our  preachers  liad  been.  I  am  tlie 
first  that  has  been  appointed  in  this  State  by  the  Methodist  Con- 


514  CENTENNIAL   OF 

ferencc.  I  set  out  with  a  prayer  to  God  for  a  blessing  on  my 
endeavors,  and  with  an  expectation  of  many  oppositions.  At  four 
o'clock  I  arrived  in  Norwalk,  and  went  to  one  Mr.  Rogers,  where 
one  of  our  friends  had  asked  the  liberty  for  me  to  preach.  When 
I  came,  Mrs.  Rogers  told  me  lier  husband  was  from  home  and  was 
not  willing  for  me  to  preach  in  his  house.  We  told  her  we  would 
meet  in  the  road  rather  than  give  any  uneasiness.  We  proposed 
speaking  in  an  old  house  that  stood  just  by,  but  she  would  not 
consent,  saying  we  would  tread  the  grass  down.  So  the  others 
went  and  gave  notice  to  some  of  the  people,  and  they  soon  began 
to  collect,  and  we  went  to  the  road  where  we  had  an  apple-tree  to 
shade  us.  When  the  woman  saw  that  I  was  determined  to 
preach,  she  said  I  might  preach  in  the  old  house;  but  I  told  her 
I  thought  it  would  be  better  to  remain  where  we  were.  So  I 
began  on  the  side  of  the  road  with  about  twenty  hearers.  After 
singing  and  praying,  I  preached  from  John  lii.  7,  Ye  must  be 
born  again.  I  felt  happy  that  we  were  favored  with  so  comfortable 
a  place.  Most  of  the  congregation  paid  particular  attention  to 
what  I  said,  as  if  they  understood  something  of  the  New  Birth. 
After  preaching  I  told  the  people  1  intended  to  be  with  them 
again  in  two  weeks,  and  if  any  of  them  would  open  their  homes 
to  receive  me,  I  should  be  glad;  also  if  they  were  willing,  we 
would  meet  in  the  same  place.  Some  of  them  came  and  desired  1 
should  meet  at  the  Townhouse  the  next  time,  so  I  gave  my  con- 
sent. Wlio  knows  but  1  shall  yet  have  a  place  in  this  town  where 
I  may  lay  my  head  ? ' 

"When  Mr.  Lee  arrived  in  Norwalk,  he  found 
there  the  Congregational  Society,  organized  not  far 
from  1652.  As  a  rule  in  the  New  England  settle- 
ments, the  Congregational  Church  began  simultane- 
ously with  the  town.  The  early  Records  of  Norwalk 
contain  this  entry:  'At  a  meeting  of  tlie  inhabitants 
of  Norwalke,  the  3d  of  January,  1659,  agreed  and 
voted  that  there  should  be  a  Meeting  House  built  by 
the  joint  occurrence  of  the  inhabitants,  30  foot  in 
length,  and  18  foot  in  width.'  Thus  early  did  the 
town  house  its  first  religious  organization. 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  516 

"When  Mr.  Lee  came  to  Norwalk,  there  is  no 
reason  for  believing  that  he  found  the  religious  con- 
dition of  the  people  and  cliurches  substantially  differ- 
ent here  from  what  they  were  in  other  parts  of  New 
England.  If  this  be  so,  there  was  surely  abundant 
need  for  his  coming.  An  iron-clad  prejudice  against 
the  advent  of  any  new  sect  instantly  confronted  him. 
This  was  natural  but  unreasonable.  Monopolies  are 
never  generous.  They  never  see  room  for  any  other 
than  themselves.  In  this  respect  religious  organiza- 
tions much  resemble  all  others.  Nevertheless,  Mr. 
Lee  proposed  here  to  set  up  his  banner  —  and  did. 
Tradition  locates  '  the  historic  apple-tree  '  under 
which  the  first  Metliodist  service  was  held  in  the 
Borough,  on  or  near  the  little  triangular  green  in 
front  of  the  old  'Sherman  house'  on  Main  Street. 
There  is  no  good  reason  for  questioning  the  correct- 
ness of  the  location.  The  second  was  held  in  the 
Town  House  on  '  the  hill.'  How  many  attended, 
how  it  resulted,  and  what  Mr.  Lee  further  proposed 
respecting  Norwalk,  we  know  not.  He  has  left  no 
record  or  hint  whatever  on  these  points.  There  is 
no  evidence  that  he  ever  visited  or  preached  in  the 
village  of  '  Old  Well,'  the  predecessor  of  South  Nor- 
walk. This  village  is  first  named  in  the  Records  of 
the  Town  February  17th,  1782,  when  a  guard  of 
eighteen  soldiers  were  ordered  to  be  stationed  there 
for  its  defence.  While  with  scrupulous  accuracy  he 
mentions  the  date  on  which  classes  in  several  other 
places  were  formed,  he  nowhere  makes  any  mention 
of  the  time  when  the  class  in  Norwalk  was  organized. 


516  CENTENNIAL  OP 

The  omission  seems  inexplicable.  This  being  the 
point  where  he  formally  began  his  ecclesiastical  inva- 
sion, we  naturally  look  for  a  somewhat  detailed  state- 
ment as  to  the  results  attending  these  first  efforts, 
but  we  look  in  vain.  He  has  left  no  history  relating 
to  Norwalk,  except  that  which  covers  his  visit  on  the 
17th  of  June.  By  remembering  two  facts,  however, 
we  are  helped  to  a  conclusion  on  the  point  in  ques- 
tion which  is  probably  correct.     The  facts  are  :  — 

''1.  That  wherever  Mr.  Lee  preached,  more  or  less 
people  were  soon  converted. 

"  2.  That  as  soon  as  in  any  place  there  were  two, 
three,  or  more  converts,  he  formed  them  into  a 
class. 

"Both  these  statements  are  true  of  every  other 
place,  of  which  he  makes  special  mention,  while  mak- 
ing the  tour  of  New  England.  Tliere  is  no  assign- 
able reason  why  they  may  not  also  have  been  true  of 
Norwalk.  We  believe  they  were,  and  conclude  that 
Methodism  began  its  organized  life  here  sometime  in 
July  or  August,  1789.  Where  this  little  nucleus 
of  the  future  Church  met,  who  became  its  leaders, 
through  what  vicissitudes  of  prosperity  or  adversity 
it  passed,  the  present  generation  knoweth  not.  Its 
history  has  never  been  written.  Its  record  is  in 
heaven,  not  on  earth." 

Norwalk  became  a  part  of  Fairfield  Circuit  in 
1793,  and  prosperity  was  enjoyed  for  a  number  of 
years.  This  was  followed  by  a  season  of  depression, 
histing  until  1801,  when  new  fires  were  kindled  upon 
their  altais,  and  a  new  zeal  took  possession  of  the 


NEW    ENGLAND   METHODISM.  517 

little  class  which  had  been  upon   the  point  of  dis- 
banding. 

Their  renewed  activity  brought  upon  them  severe 
persecution.  Denied  the  use  of  the  schoolhouse  and 
other  public  buildings,  they  builded  for  themselves. 
From  grace  to  grace,  and  from  one  building  to 
another,  ever  increasing  in  numbers  and  broadening 
in  influence,  Norwalk,  where  Jesse  Lee  preached  his 
first  sermon  in  New  England,  has  come  to  see  the 
spiritual  children  of  that  old  hero  outnumber  all  the 
other  Protestant  communions  of  the  world. 

ASBURY   FIRST   M.   E.   CHURCH,  SPRINGFIELD,   MASS. 

BY    REV.    C.    A.    LITTLEFIELD,    PASTOB. 

The  early  history  of  Springfield  Methodism  is 
obscure.  Bishop  Asbury  visited  Springfield  as  early 
as  July  15,  1791.  Other  itinerants  soon  followed. 
Preaching  continued  up  to  1815,  when  the  small 
organization  that  had  been  formed  was  connected 
with  Tolland  Circuit.  Springfield  became  a  separate 
circuit  in  1819,  D.  Dorchester,  the  pastor,  preach- 
ing alternately  at  the  Water  Shops  and  Armory 
Chapel,  on  the  hill. 

In  1820  a  chapel  was  erected  at  the  Water  Shops. 
It  was  subsequently  called  Asbury  Chapel.  It  was 
a  plain  structure,  28  by  36  feet,  unpainted  on  the 
interior.  From  this  time  until  1860  the  fortunes  of 
Asbury  Chapel  were  varied.  Union  Street  and  Pyn- 
chon  Street  churches  were  organized,  but  Asbury 
Chapel  never  lost  its  identity.  In  this  year  the  Rev. 
S.  Jackson  was  appointed  pastor. 


518  NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM. 

The  new  church-building  was  erected  on  Florence 
Street,  in  1866,  Bishop  Simpson  preaching  the  dedi- 
catory sermon.  The  name  was  then  changed  to 
Florence  Street,  but  in  1890  the  name  was  changed 
to  Asbury  First  M.  E.  Church.  The  present  mem- 
bership is  two  hundred  and  eighty. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

TYPICAL  CHURCHES  —  concluded. 

CHESTNUT   STREET   M.   E.   CHURCH,   PORTLAND,  ME. 

BY  N.  T.  WHITAKEK,   D.D.,  PASTOR. 

The  Chestnut  Street  M.  E.  Church  was  organized 
in  October,  1795.  It  will  celebrate  its  centennial  in 
five  years.  Its  history  reveals  great  success  in  the 
face  of  many  and  most  serious  embarrassments.  The 
first  Methodist  sermon  in  Portland  was  preached  by 
Rev.  Jesse  Lee,  on  September  12, 1793,  in  the  Second 
Parish  Congregational  Church,  Rev.  Elijah  Kellogg 
pastor.  It  was  his  second  sermon  in  Maine.  Jesse 
Lee,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Methodists,"  says,  "  The 
first  time  we  preached  in  Portland  was  on  the  12th 
day  of  September,  1793."  "The  first  class  formed  in 
the  town  of  Portland  was  about  the  first  of  October, 
1795."  "The  first  Quarterly  meeting  for  that  cir- 
cuit was  held  in  Portland  on  the  4th  day  of  December, 
1795.  We  here  administered  the  Lord's  Supper  for 
the  first  time  in  that  circuit." 

This  class  consisted  of  six  persons, — "Samuel  and 
Sarah  Homer,  Daniel  and  Polly  Lewis,  and  probably 
Theophilus  Boynton  and  wife." 

From  the  organization  of  this  church  until  1804, 
Portland  and  the  adjoining  territory  was  called  the 

[519] 


520  CENTENNIAL  OP 

•  Portland  Circuit,  and  was  served  by  Revs.  'Joel 
Ketchum,  Philip  Wager,  Jesse  Stoneham,  Nicholas 
Snetheii,  John  Finnegan,  Tiniotliy  Merritt,  Joshua 
Soule,  Asa  Heath,  Reuben  Hubbard,  Philip  Munger, 
and  Joseph  Wicker.  Preaching-services  were  held 
in  the  house  of  Theophilus  Boynton  until  1801,  and 
then  for  three  years  in  tlie  town  schoolhouse.  * 

These  early  Methodists  were  subjected  to  the  most 
bitter  persecutions,  yet  their  gatherings  often  wit- 
nessed scenes  of  Pentecostal  power.  Converts  were 
multiplied,  most  of  whom  united  with  the  other 
Portland  churches.  "In  1798  Bishop  Asbury  visited 
Portland  and  preached  in  widow  Boynton's  back- 
room to  about  twenty-five  persons,  chiefly  women. 
Text  2  Peter  ii.  9.  '  In  the  afternoon  I  preached 
to  about  double  the  number  on  Philip,  iii.  8.'  "  He 
visited  the  town  again  in  1807. 

Under  the  leadership  of  Rev.  Joshua  Taylor,  and 
with  money  collected  by  him  in  Portland,  New  York, 
and  Baltimore,  on  March  10,  1804,  the  St.  Paul's 
Episcopal  Church  edifice  was  purchased,  moved  to 
the  corner  of  Federal  and  Congress  Streets,  opposite 
Chestnut  Street,  and  repaired  at  a  cost  of  about  five 
hundred  and  eleven  dollars.  It  was  rededicated  by 
Rev.  Joshua  Soule,  afterwards  Bishop  Soule,  assisted 
by  Joshua  Taylor,  in  August,  1804.  In  June,  1804, 
the  Portland  "  circuit  "  became  a  "  station,"  with  Rev. 
Joshua  Taylor  pastor.  The  entire  expense  of  the 
society  during  that  year  was  •'s>184.22,  including  tlie 
salar}'  of  pastor  and  presiding  elder,  wliich  reveals 
the  straitened  circumstances  of  its  membership. 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  521 

In  1808  the  church  edifice  was  found  too  small  to 
accommodate  the  steadily  growing  congregations, 
and  land  was  purchased  and  a  new  church  erected 
on  Chestnut  Street,  at  a  cost  of  $1,878.39.  It  was 
dedicated  to  the  worship  of  God  February  11,  1811, 
Rev.  Epaphras  Kibby  pastor.  Eleven  years  later, 
during  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  David  Kilburn,  the 
Chestnut  Street  M.  E.  Sunday  School  was  organized, 
"with  J.  B.  Cahoon,  later  Mayor  of  Portland,"  as 
superintendent.  Three  years  later,  during  tlie  pas- 
torate of  Rev.  Ephraim  Wiley,  a  remarkable  revival 
of  religion  was  experienced,  which  spread  to  the 
other  evangelical  churches,  and  changed  the  moral 
character  of  the  whole  town.  Its  elevating  and 
ennobling  influence  is  felt  even  to-day  (1890).  It 
is  called,  in  history,  the  Great  Revival.  Revivals 
have  been  frequent  in  the  church  since.  Indeed, 
her  constant,  earnest,  united,  self-sacrificing  religious 
work,  and  frequent  conversions  to  Christ,  merit  for 
her  the  name  of  the  Revival  Church. 

In  1828  a  second  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was 
organized  on  Park  Street,  the  Chestnut  Street  M.  E. 
Church  edifice  being  too  small  for  the  great  crowds 
that  attended  the  Methodist  services ;  yet  so  great 
was  the  spiritual  power  of  the  mother  church  that 
she  soon  enlarged  her  "  meeting-house,"  and  built  a 
chapel  (in  1829)  on  Cumberland  Street  for  her 
social  service.  The  church  edifice  was  again  en- 
larged in  1836. 

In  1856  the  present  church-building  was  erected. 
It  was  dedicated  July  8,  1857.      It  cost,  with  the 


522  CENTENNIAL  OF 

interest  paid  before  the  complete  liquidation  of  its 
indebtedness,  eighty  thousand  dollars.  The  payment 
of  its  debts  was  accomplished  by  the  heroic  leader- 
ship of  Dr.  J.  R.  Day,  and  the  splendid  management 
of  Dr.  C.  J.  Clark.  It  was  improved  during  the 
pastorate  of  Dr.  A.  McKeown  at  an  expenditure  of 
i783;  during  the  pastorate  of  Dr.  J.  W.  Bashford  at 
an  expenditure  of  $2,908;  and  during  the  present 
pastorate  at  an  expenditure  of  $10,000. 

The  society  has  possessed  two  parsonages :  one  on 
Chestnut  Street,  which  cost  -11,178 ;  and  its  present 
parsonage,  the  gift  of  the  Ladies'  Social  Circle,  cost- 
ing 16,158. 

Chestnut  Street  M.  E.  Church  is  a  mother  church, 
having  had  nine  children,  of  whom  seven  are  in  a 
flourishing  condition. 

In  1842  the  Casco  Mission  "was  set  off  with  a 
separate  pastor  and  two  hundred  and  fourteen  mem- 
bers. Out  of  the  Casco  mission  grew  the  Methodist 
churches  at  Harpswell,  at  Chebeague  Island,  and  at 
Peak's  Island." 

In  1844  she  planted  a  Sunday  school  on  Brackett 
Street,  under  the  superintendence  of  S.  R.  Leavitt, 
which  led  to  the  organization  of  the  Pine  Street 
M.  E.  Church,  in  1845. 

In  1846  the  Cape  Elizabeth  M.  E.  Church  was  set 
off  from  the  Chestnut  Street  M.  E.  Church,  with 
fifty-four  members,  and,  at  about  the  same  time,  the 
Cumberland  M.  E.  Church  with  thirty-five  members. 

In  1849  she  established  a  Sunday  school  under 
the  superijitendence  of  S.   R.   Leavitt,   on  Munjoy 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  523 

Hill,  which  led  to  the  organization  of  the  Congress 
Street  M.  E.  Church,  with  ninety  members,  sixty  of 
them  being  transferred  from  the  Chestnut  Street 
Church. 

In  1857  the  M.  E.  Church  at  Ferry  Village  was  set 
off  from  Chestnut  Street  Church,  with  sixty-six, 
members,  and  also  the  Woodford's  M,  E.  Church. 

The  following  ministers  have  served  the  church 
since  it  was  set  apart  as  a  station,  in  1804 :  — 

Joshua  Taylor,  1804-5;  David  Batchelder,  1806 ; 
Joel  Winch,  1807-8;  Epaphras  Kibby,  1809-10; 
Martin  Ruter,  1811;  Jolm  Lindsay,  1812;  Daniel 
Filmore,  1813-14;  Eleazer  Wells,  1815;  Joel  San- 
born, 1816  ;  Elijah  Hedding,  1817  ;  Charles  Virgin, 
1818;  Solomon  Sias,  1819-20;  David  Kilburn,  1821- 
22;  Josiah  Scarritt,  1823 ;  Phineas  Crandall,  1824; 
Ephraim  Wiley,  1825-27,  1834-35 ;  Stephen  Lovell, 
1828-29,  1836 ;  W.  H.  Norris,  1829-30,  1834 ;  John 
Horton,  1830-31;  G.  T.  Cox,  1831-32,  1836-38; 
G.  G.  Moore,  1832;  Charles  Baker,  1833;  J.  B.  Hus- 
ted,  1833 ;  Joseph  H.  Jenne,  1837  ;  George  Webber, 
D.D.,  1838-39,  1844-45;  Moses  Springer,  1839-40; 
John  Hobart,  1840-41 ;  J.  L.  Francis,  1841 ;  W.  F. 
Farrington,  1842-43;  H.  M.  Blake,  1844;  Eaton 
Shaw,  1846-47  ;  C.  F.  Allen,  D.D.,  1848,  1864-66  ; 
William  McDonald,  D.D.,  1849-50 ;  Alonzo  Sander- 
son, 1851;  Joseph  Colby,  1852-5;  Charles  W.  Morse, 
1854-55;  Henry    Cox,    1856-59;    H.    B.    Rigaway, 

D.  D.,  1860-61  ;  William    R.   Clark,  D.D.,  1862-63  ; 

E.  R.  Keyes,  1867-68  ;  S.  R.  Bailey,  1869  ;  Israel 
Luce,  1870-72 ;   S.  F.  Jones,  D.D.,  1873-76  ;    J.  R. 


524  CENTENNIAL   OF 

Day,  D.D.,  1876-78  ;  Charles  J.  Clark,  D.D.,  1879- 
80;  Andrew  McKeown,  D.D.,'  1881-83;  J.  W. 
Bashford,  Ph.D.,  1884-86  ;  N.  T.  Whitaker,  D.D., 
1887-90. 

The  following  have  been  licensed  as  exhorters  by 
the  Chestnut  Street  Quarterly  Conference:  — 

David  Hill,  Alvah  Clark,  Mr.  Pickard,  John 
Prince,  Joseph  Shoot,  Samuel  Newman,  Thomas 
Files,  H.  C.  Lovell,  George  F.  Millward. 

The  following  have  been  licensed  as  local  preach- 
ers :  — 

Edward  Whittle,  William  Fisk,  S.  Snowden  (col.), 
Timothy  Wolcott,  Stephen  Ben  net,  Jonathan  Place, 
Joshua  Taylor,  William  Gardner,  William  Pierce, 
Joseph  Reed,  Jr.,  R.  Lombard,  Jacob  Dixon,  Phineas 
Libby,  Charles  Cummings,  G.  F.  Cox,  J.  R.  Marr, 
Eaton  Shaw,  H.  P.  Winter,  George  F.  Millward. 

The  following  have  been  recommended  for  the 
travelling  connection  :  — 

Orlando  Hines,  Timothy  Barlow,  Ed.  Cook,  D.D., 
Eaton  Shaw,  Stephen  Lovell,  J.  L.  Francis,  C.  C. 
Mason,  Alpha  Turner,  Moses  Springer,  Cyrus  Cum- 
mings, W.  S.  Jones,  C.  J.  Clark,  D.D. 

The  following  ministers  were  converted  in  the 
Chestnut  Street  M.  E.  Church  vestr}^ :  — 

J.  F.  Carney,  Samuel  Pajnie,  S.  F.  Pearson,  George 
Ballou. 

The  Sunday  school  connected  with  this  church 
has  a  wonderful  history.  It  has  had  fifteen  thousand 
members;  numbers  to-day  six  hundred  and  fifty,  and 
is  the  larofest  in  the  State  of  Maine.     More  than  two 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  625 

thousand  persons  have  found  Christ  while  members 
of  this  school.  Forty  ministers  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
have  been  students  in  its  classes. 

Its  Epworth  League  was  organized  first  as  an 
Oxford  League,  in  1887  ;  has  to-day  one  hundred  and 
thirty-one  reliable  members,  and  is  rapidly  increas- 
ing, being  united,  energetic,  and  spiritual.  The 
church  has  also  a  Junior  Epworth  League,  numbering 
seventy-six  members. 

The  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  and  the 
Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society  have  large  and 
influential  auxiliaries  in  this  church,  which  has  also 
a  Mission  Band  jiumbering  fifty  members;  a  vigorous 
Young  Men's  League,  and  Young  Ladies'  League, 
doing  aggressive  Christian  work ;  a  Dorcas  Circle, 
and  a  Ladies'  Social  Circle,  engaged  in  special  benev- 
olent and  social  work.  The  estimated  amount  given 
by  Chestnut  Street  M.  E.  Church  for  charitable 
purposes  aggregates  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars.  In  church  benevolences  she  has  long  been 
the  leader  in  Maine  Methodism.  Her  aggregated 
membership,  since  1795,  is  4,557.  She  is  to-day  the 
largest  Protestant  Church  in  the  State. 

In  the  concluding  words  of  Rev.  Joshua  Taylor's 
sketch,  entitled  "The  Rise  of  Methodism  in  Port- 
land," "  May  God  grant  that  peace,  harmony,  and 
success,  and  great  grace,  may  attend  the  society  and 
congregation,  and  that  a  bountiful  increase  may 
attend  the  efforts  of  all  his  servants  who  shall  in 
succession  labor  among  this  people  ! " 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 
zion's  herald. 

RKV.   FREDERICK   BURRILL  GRAVES. 

It  is  less  interesting  to  read  about  a  newspaper 
than  to  read  the  newspaper  itself.  But  this  is  not 
always  true.  There  are  some,  both  religious  and 
secular,  which  are  as  dry  as  an  open  country  road 
in  summer,  when  the  tliermometer  is  one  hundred 
degrees  in  the  shade.  I  have  seen  them.  They 
have  not  a  five-o'clock-in-the-morning  atmosphere 
about  them.  However,  I  believe  I  may  safely  say 
that  there  is  no  religious  newspaper,  official  or  un- 
official, in  our  wide  connection,  which  is  more  alert 
and  active,  more  thoughtful  and  religious,  more 
homelike  and  better  adapted  to  all  ages  and  classes 
of  readers,  than  Zions  Herald.  Its  history,  and  the 
object  of  its  publication,  must  be  of  wide  interest, 
because  both  are  unique  and  peculiar. 

ITS   HISTORY. 

It  is  an  evolution.  It  is  not  an  upstart.  Century 
plants  grow :  mushrooms  spring  up.  Methodism 
had  a  hard  and  weary  struggle  with  the  religious 
conservatism  of  New  England  in  the  early  days. 
From  the  first  preaching  of  Jesse  Lee,  it  had  been 

[526] 


fc        NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  627 

misrepresented,  caricatured,  and  misunderstood.  The 
press  of  New  England  was  not  cordial  in  its  welcome 
to  the  new  sect,  and  the  secular  papers  only  infre- 
quently permitted  a  defence  of  the  itinerants  and 
their  heretical  (?)  doctrines  to  appear  in  their  col- 
umns. And  so,  naturally,  the  Methodists  felt  that 
they  must  have  an  organ  of  their  own.  As  early  as 
1815,  the  New  England  Missio7iary  Magazine,  edited 
by  Martin  Ruter,  was  published  by  Isaac  Hill,  at 
Concord,  N.  H.  Then  six  years  later  was  organized 
"The  Society  for  Giving  and  Receiving  Religious 
Intelligence,"  from  which  arose  Zions  Herald.  It 
was  printed  by  Moore  and  Prouse,  but  under  the 
direction  of  a  committee  of  the  society.  But  not 
until  January  9,  1823,  did  tlie  first  number  appear. 
It  was  a  folio  sheet,  so  small  and  insignificant  in 
comparison  with  the  elegant,  large  quarto  sheet  of 
to-day,  tliat  we  should  not  have  wondered  if  our 
fathers  had  grumbled.  But  they  did  not.  The 
price  was  the  same,  and  they  cheerfully  paid  it. 

Arrangements  were  not  yet  completely  satisfac- 
tory, and  a  Conference  committee  decided  to  pur- 
chase the  plant  of  the  printer,  and  place  the  paper 
in  the  hands  of  one  of  their  number,  Solomon  Sias. 
So  well  and  skilfully  did  he  administer  the  affairs, 
that,  at  its  close,  September  30,  1827,  all  the  liabili- 
ties had  been  met,  and  instead  of  tlie  existence  of 
financial  embarrassment,  as  heretofore,  he  turned 
over  to  his  successor  a  property  worth  over  eight 
thousand  dollars,  and  a  subscription  list  of  about 
six  thousand.     Before    this  time  the   Book  Agents 


628  CENTENNIAL  OP 

at  New  York  had  been  in  New  England,  and  ex- 
pressed a  desire  to  purchase  the  paper.  Tliey  had 
seen  its  success.  They  understood  tlie  evident  desire 
of  New  England  Methodists  for  a  special  paper  for 
themselves.  Undoubtedly  they  thought  they  could 
overcome  that  provincial  feeling,  and  turn  it  to  the 
advantage  of  the  Book  Concern  at  New  York.  But 
they  did  not  properly  or  accurately  measure  that 
feeling,  nor  indeed  did  the  trustees  of  the  Confer- 
ence, who  agreed  to  the  sale  of  the  paper.  Most  of 
the  preachers  erred,  also,  in  being  willing  to  give  it 
up.  All  blundered,  except  the  New  England  Meth- 
odist people.  They  had  been  overlooked.  And  so, 
though  the  paper  was  printed  in  New  York,  in  con- 
nection with  The  Christian  Advocate  and  Journal^  and 
known  as  The  Christian  Advocate  and  Journal  and 
Zions  Herald,  it  was  obliged  to  come  back  in  about 
four  years  after  its  sale,  in  response  to  the  demands 
of  the  people.  And  here  it  has  remained  ever 
since,  loyally  supported  by  them. 

I  have  no  desire  in  this  place  to  enter  into  the 
controversy  in  regard  to  the  claim  of  Zion^s  Herald, 
that  it  is  the  "oldest  Methodist  newspaper  in  the 
world."  The  evidence  offered  by  either  side  in  the 
dispute  is  not  so  clear  or  convincing  as  to  settle 
the  case ;  though,  as  far  as  an  argument  which  can 
be  made  from  the  facts  able  to  be  presented,  is 
concerned,  it  is,  in  my  judgment,  with  the  Zions 
Herald,  and  not  The  Christian  Advocate  and  Journal. 
The  question  is,  however,  of  no  material  importance. 

But  two  clerical  opponents  of  "the  united  paper" 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  529 

in  New  York,  Benjamin  Jones  and  Shipley  W. 
Wilson,  started  a  small  sheet,  known  as  The  Gospel 
Balance.  It  had  scarcely  begun,  however,  when  a 
protest,  both  reasonable  and  just,  came  from  New 
York,  that  this  was  a  violation  of  the  contract. 
At  this  Mr.  Wilson  withdrew  from  the  enterprise, 
but  the  stout  and  indiscreet  Mr.  Jones  persisted, 
until  he  was  expelled  from  the  Methodist  ministry. 
This  was  harsh  treatment.  Even  before  the  nesrotia- 
tions  of  sale  were  fully  settled,  Aaron  Lummus  pub- 
lished, on  Oct.  7,  1829,  the  first  number  of  the  Netv 
England  Herald.  Again  came  a  protest  from  New 
York.  At  the  ensuing  session  of  the  New  England 
Conference,  Mr.  Lummus  was  arraigned,  expressed 
penitence,  and  agreed  to  pay  over  to  the  Book  Agents 
the  net  profits  of  the  paper,  to  meet  the  losses  they 
had  sustained.  His  character  was  passed.  But  his 
paper  went  on,  and  grew  so  popular  that  the  Confer- 
ence of  1830  passed  resolutions  in  favor  of  a  local 
paper,  and  "to  meet  the  just  claim  made  by  the  general 
Book  Concern  upon  this  Conference,  in  consequence 
of  losses  sustained,  it  was  voted  that  the  net  profits 
of  the  paper  coming  to  the  Conference  should  be 
paid  to  the  Book  Agents." 

The  four  New  England  Conferences,  in  1830,  in- 
dorsed the  New  England  Herald^  and  asked  the  people 
to  temporarily  support  it. 

In  the  year  1831  the  Boston  Wesleyan  Association 
was  formed.  This  Association  purchased  the  New 
England  Herald,  carried  on  the  negotiations  with  the 
Agents  at  New  York,   which  continued  for  many 


530  CENTENNIAL  OF 

years ;  but  the  whole  matter  was  finally  adjusted 
amicably.  The  Association  changed  the  name  of 
the  paper  to  the  Neiv  England  Christian  Herald.  In 
August,  1833,  the  union  paper  ceased,  and  then  the 
New  England  Christian  Herald  became,  the  following 
month,  the  Zion's  Herald,  by  which  title  it  has  ever 
since  appeared. 

I  cannot  refer  specifically  to  all  the  excellences  of 
this  paper,  nor  to  the  progressive  stages  of  its  growth. 
But  I  must  mention  one  note^v^orthy  fact.  During 
the  dark  and  stormy  period  of  American  history, 
previous  to  our  frightful  civil  war,  which,  like  a 
tempest,  was  long  in  brewing,  it  is  well  known  that 
the  newspapers,  religious  and  secular,  the  courts  and 
judges,  churches  and  preachers,  with  but  few  excep- 
tions, hated  the  abolitionists.  They  were  denounced 
in  violent  and  virulent  terms  here  in  the  North,  and 
it  was  not  safe  for  anybody  to  so  love  the  "  brother 
in  black  "  as  to  declare  in  favor  of  his  emancipation. 
It  is  therefore  the  brightest  star  in  the  crown  of 
Zion's  Herald  that  it  dared  to  defend  the  abolition- 
ists, and  opened  its  columns  to  them.  Of  this  Dr. 
Abel  Stevens  says,  it  was  the  "only  church  paper 
really  open  to  abolitionists  during  the  long  anti- 
slavery  struggle." 

When  Garrison  was  mobbed  in  Boston,  Dr.  Daniel 
Steele  says  that  the  entire  press  of  the  city,  except 
Zion's  Herald  and  the  Christian  Standard,  approved 
the  outrage.     These  two  alone  severely  condemned  it. 

And  the  Herald  has  always  been  aggressive  and 
advanced,  while  at  the  same  time  being  conservative 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  531 

and  cautious.  It  has  recognized  that  not  necessarily 
that  which  is  old  or  that  which  is  new  is  best  or 
nearer  the  truth,  but  it  has  tried  to  discover.  On 
the  great  question  which  is  agitating  the  Methodist 
church  to-da}^  the  admission  of  women  to  the  Gen- 
eral Conference,  it  speaks  strongly  and  unqmilifiedly 
in  its  favor,  while  respecting  the  opinions  and  judg- 
ment of  others. 

New  England  Methodism  is  clearly  mirrored  in 
the  paper;  and  t&  know  how  this  branch  of  our 
church  stands  on  large  or  small  questions  of  vital 
interest  to  Methodism,  no  better  criteria  of  judgment 
can  be  had  than  tliose  found  in  the  columns  of  this 
paper. 

The  editors  of  the  paper,  with  the  date  of  their 
incumbency,  are  as  follows  :  — 

Rev.  John  R.  Cotting,  for  the  year  1823 ;  Mr.  Bar- 
ber Badger,  for  the  year  1824  ;  INIr.  G.  V.  H.  Forbes, 
from  1824  to  1828,  when  the  paper  was  transferred 
to  New  York  City ;  the  Wesleyan  Association  pur- 
chased the  paper,  July,  1831 ;  Mr.  William  C.  Brown 
and  Rev.  T.  Merritt  were  editors  from  July,  1831,  to 
June,  1832  ;  Rev.  Shipley  Wells  Wilson  and  Rev. 
S.  Osgood  Wright,  from  June,  1832,  to  November, 
1832;  Rev.  S.  W.  Wilson,  from  November,  1832,  to 
June,  1834 ;  Mr.  Benjamin  Kingsbury,  from  July, 
1834,  to  August,  1836;  Mr.  William  C.  Brown,  from 
August,  1836,  to  January,  1841  ;  Rev.  Abel  Stevens, 
LL.D.,  from  January,  1841,  to  July,  1852;  Rev. 
Daniel  Wise,  D.D.,  from  1852  to  1856  ;  Rev.  Erastus 
O.  Haven,  D.D.,  from   1856    to  1863;    Rev.  N.  E. 


532  CENTENNIAL   OF 

Cobleigh,  D.D.,  from  1863  to  1867;  Rev.  Gilbert 
Haven?  D.D.,  from  1867  to  1872;  Rev.  B.  K.  Peirce, 
D.D.,  from  1872  to  1887. 

The  present  editor  is  Rev.  Charles  Tarkhurst, 
D.D.  He  has  put  new  vigor  into  its  columns,  and 
increased  largely  its  circulation,  so  that,  under  the 
true  newspaper  instinct  which  he  possesses  in  a  re- 
markable degree,  the  paper  has  risen  to  recognition 
everywhere  at  home,  and  even  in  England,  as  one  of 
the  brightest  religious  sheets  that  run  through  the 
mails. 

The  publishers  of  the  paper  have  been  as  here 
indicated  :  — 

At  first,  under  the  proprietorship  of  the  Asso- 
ciation, the  editor  acted  also  as  "  agent  "  or  pub- 
lisher. 

In  November,  1832,  the  editor  was  relieved  of  the 
publishing  department  ;  and  David  H.  Ela  was 
appointed  agent,  and  served  till  July,  1833,  when 
Benjamin  Kingsbury  became  agent,  and  served  until 
July,  1836,  for  the  last  two  years  of  that  time  serv- 
ing also  as  editor,  having  succeeeded  Rev.  S.  W. 
Wilson. 

David  H.  Ela  served  from  July,  1836,  to  Novem- 
ber, 1887  ;  Rev.  Dexter  S.  King,  from  December, 
1837,  to  October,  1838  ;  Franklin  Rand,  from  Octo- 
ber, 1838,  to  August,  1868;  Rev.  Ezra  D.  Winslow, 
from  August,  1868,  to  February,  1871  ;  Alonzo  S. 
Weed,  the  present  agent,  from  February,  1871. 

The  present  publisher  is  Mr.  Alonzo  S.  Weed,  who 
keeps  a  sharp  eye  open  to  the  interests  of  the  paper. 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  633 


THE   OBJECT   OP   ITS   PUBLICATION. 

It  is  not  a  private  enterprise,  published  in  the 
interests  of  one  or  more  private  stockholders.  And 
that  has  always  been  true.  The  avails  beyond  the 
expenses  have  always  been  diverted  to  some  interest 
in  connection  with  the  Church  at  large.  Once  it 
was  the  Academy  at  Wilbrahara,  or  the  Book  Con- 
cern, or  the  Missionary  Society.  But  when  the 
Boston  Wesleyan  Association  was  incorporated,  the 
second  section  of  the  act  read  as  follows :  — 

"  The  said  corporation  may  hold  real  and  personal  property 
necessary  for  conducting  said  business,  not  exceeding  twenty  thou- 
sand dollars  in  value;  and  all  profits  which  shall  accrue  from  said 
business  over  and  above  said  capital  sum  necessary  for  conducting 
the  same,  the  said  corporation  shall  annually  divide  and  appropri- 
ate among  the  several  Annual  Conferences  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  in  New  England,  for  the  benefit  of  the  superannuated 
and  necessitous  ministers  of  the  same,  their  wives,  widows,  and 
orphans,  in  such  proportions  as  said  corporation  shall  deem 
equitable." 

And  so,  year  by  year,  in  proportion  to  the  amount 
of  their  patronage,  the  aggregate  voted  by  the  Asso- 
ciation for  this  purpose,  has  been  divided  among  the 
New  England  Conferences.  The  New  England  Con- 
ference receives  the  largest  amount.  Our  New  Eng- 
land Methodists  should  remember  distinctly :  (1) 
That,  by  charter  obligation,  a  certain  part  of  the 
profits  of  the  paper  are  given  annually  for  super- 
annuated ministers,  their  wives,  widows,  and  orphans; 
(2)  That  ultimately  the  entire  profits  of  the  paper 


534  CENTENNIAL  OP 

will  go  to  them  ;  (3)  That  no  member  of  the  Asso- 
ciation receives  any  remuneration  for  his  services. 

The  cheerful,  clear,  and  fitting  words  of  ex-Gov- 
ernor Claflin,  which  were  uttered  at  the  banquet  of 
the  Association  last  year,  are  worth  recording  here  :  — 

"I  am  an  optimist,"  lie  said,  "and  I  like  to  think  of  the  future 
of  this  Association.  The  deht  is  now  one  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand  dollars;  ten  thousand  dollars  will  be  paid  upon  that  this 
year.  The  property  is  increasing  in  value,  as  are  the  rentals  also. 
In  six  years  the  debt  will  be  down  to  one  liundred  thousand  dol- 
lars. The  net  income  will  then  be  larger,  and  the  interest  will  be 
much  less  annually.  In  from  ten  to  fifteen  years  the  whole  debt 
will  be  extinguished,  and  then  the  entire  receipts  must  be  divided 
among  the  patronizing  Conferences.  The  time  is  not  far  distant, 
then,  when  the  Wesleyan  Association  will  divide  one-fifth  as  much 
among  the  worn-out  preachers  and  their  families  in  our  New  Eng- 
land as  the  Book  Concern  will  be  able  to  give  to  all  the  Confer- 
ences. I  want  a  paper  true  to  the  genius  of  New  England 
Methodism,  independent  and  yet  loyal,  literary  and  yet  spiritual, 
fully  abreast  and  in  touch  with  the  social  problems  of  the  day.  I 
have  never  seen  greater  devotion  to  duty  than  in  the  entire  editorial 
corps  of  the  paper." 

The  Association  is  limited  in  its  membership  to 
twenty.  The  present  members  are  :  Franklin  Rand, 
Pliny  Nickerson,  Charles  Woodbur}^  Edward  F. 
Porter,  William  Claflin,  Edward  II.  Dunn,  Alden 
Speare,  James  A.  Woolson,  Francis  A.  Perr}-,  John 
G.  Gary,  Edwin  H.  Johnson,  Silas  Peirce,  James 
F.  Almy,  Joshua  Merrill,  Oliver  H.  Durrell,  Warren 
O.  Kyle,  J.  K.  C.  Sleeper,  W.  P.  Dillingham,  C.  C. 
Corbin,  Robert  F.  Raymond. 

Hon.  Edward  H.  Dunn,  a  wealthy  leather  mer- 
chant, is  the  President. 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  535 

Now  the  poorly  paid  preachers  of  Methodism  in 
New  England  deserve  the  love  and  sympathy  of 
every  Methodist  in'  New  England ;  and  when,  by 
taking  their  own  church  paper,  they  will  make  their 
own  homes  brighter,  as  well  as,  at  the  same  time, 
help  this  heroic  class  of  men  —  more  heroic,  I  do 
not  hesitate  to  say,  than  any  missionary  working 
under  any  foreign  flag  —  our  ministers  owe  it  to 
themselves,  to  God,  and  to  the  Church,  to  make  it  a 
part  of  their  religious  duty. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

OTHER  INSTITUTIONS. 
THE  BOSTON   CORRESPONDENCE   SCHOOL. 

RKV.  ALFRED  A.  WRIGHT,   D.D.,   DEAN. 

This  School  was  organized  as  a  school  of  New 
Testament  Greek  in  1882,  by  Rev.  xllfred  A.  Wriglit 
of  the  New  England  Conference,  principally  to  arouse 
Methodist  ministers  to  the  feasibility  of  mastering 
Bible  Greek  through  studies  and  recitations  con- 
ducted by  correspondence.  Over  thirteen  hundred 
students  in  Bible  Greek  have  been  enrolled  in  the 
School  since  its  organization,  and  among  the  grad- 
uates are  many  who  are  teachers  of  the  sacred 
tongue. 

In  1889  the  School  was  re-organized,  and  on  Octo- 
ber 19,  1889,  the  Secretary  of  State  issued  the 
charter  of  the  Corporation,  hereafter  to  be  known 
as  "The  Boston  Correspondence  School." 

In  thus  extending  the  scope  of  the  School,  the 
same  methods  of  instructional  and  directional  work 
that  had  proved  so  highly  successful  in  the  Greek 
School,  were  opened  to  students  in  eight  other  de- 
partments. The  present  organization  of  the  depart- 
ments is  as  follows :  1.  New  Testament  Greek ;  2. 
English  Bible ;   3.  English  Literature ;   4.  Geology 

[536] 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.        537 

and  Anthropology;  5.  Theology;  6.  Latin;  7.  Sacred 
Art  and  Archaeology;  8.  The  Conference  Course  of 
Study  for  Methodist  Preachers ;  9.  The  W.  C.  T.  U. 
Course  of  Study  for  Evangelists.  Certificates  are 
given,  but  degrees  are  not  conferred. 

Among  the  professors  and  teachers  are  some  of 
the  leading  names :  —  Prof.  Alexander  Winchell, 
LL.D. ;  Prof.  William  H.  Withrow,  D.D.,  F.  R.  S.  C, 
of  Canada;  Hon.  Wallace  Bruce,  A.M.,  U.  S.  Consul, 
Edinburgh,  Scotland;  Pres.  Homer  B.  Sprague,  Ph.D., 
LL.D.,  of  Grand  Forks,  N.  Dakota ;  and  others. 

The  Advisory  Board  is  composed  of  fifty  repre- 
sentative educators,  clergymen,  college  presidents, 
professors,  and  other  literati.  Among  these  are  many 
of  the  most  prominent  names  in  Methodism.  The  fol- 
lowing is  a  list  of  the  officers  of  the  corporation :  — 

President.  The  Rev.  Lewis  B.  Bates,  D.D.,  Bos- 
ton, Mass. 

Clei'k  and  Treasurer.  The  Rev.  Edward  L.  Hyde, 
Plainfield,  N.  J. 

Directors.  The  Rev.  Lewis  B.  Bates,  D.D.,  Boston, 
Mass.;  The  Rev.  William  R.  Clark,  D.D.,  Brook- 
line,  Mass. ;  The  Rev.  John  W.  Hamilton,  D.D., 
Boston,  Mass. ;  The  Rev.  Daniel  Steele,  D.D.,  Bos- 
ton, Mass. 

Trustees.  The  Rev.  Robert  E.  Bisbee,  A.M.,  Lynn, 
Mass. ;  The  Rev.  William  Nast  Brodbeck,  Boston, 
Mass.;  The  Rev.  George  S.  Chadbourne,  D.D.,  Cam- 
bridge, Mass. ;  Hon.  O.  H.  Durrell,  Cambridge,  Mass. ; 
Bishop  Willard  F.  Mallalieu,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New 
Orleans,  La. ;  The  Rev.  Joseph  H.  Mansfield,  D.D., 


538  CENTENNIAL  OF 

Lynn,  Mass. ;  Henry  O.  Marcy,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  Bos- 
ton, Mass. ;  Eben  Tourjee,  Mus.  Doc,  Boston,  Mass. ; 
Miss  Frances  E.  Willard,  Evanston,  111. ;  D.  G. 
Woodvine,  M.D.,  Boston,  Mass. 

Officers  of  the  school  :  — 

Beati.  Rev.  Alfred  A.  Wright,  D.D.,  Boston, 
Mass. 

Registrar.  Miss  Emma  C.  Sawtelle,  9  Clinton 
Street,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

THE  deaconess'    HOME  AND  TRAINING-SCHOOL. 

The  two  movements  of  the  present  century  which 
promise  most  for  Methodism  in  this  country  are  em- 
bodied in  the  Epworth  League  and  the  Order  of 
Deaconesses,  if  Order  be  the  proper  term  to  use.  If 
Methodism  is  "  Christianity  in  earnest,"  then,  as  it  is 
manifested  in  the  work  of  Deaconesses,  it  is  Chris- 
tianity practically  applied  to  the  world's  need. 

For  such  work  there  must  be  preparation.  That 
means  instruction,  and  a  place  in  which  instruction 
may  be  given.  Such  workers  must  have  a  home, 
and  that  means  a  house  set  apart  especially  for  them. 
The  New  England  Conference,  at  its  session  in  1889, 
appointed  a  commission,  to  which  was  "intrusted  the 
preliminary  work  necessary  to  the  establishment  of 
a  Deaconess'  Training-school  in  Boston,"  with  instruc- 
tions to  report  at  the  next  session  of  the  Conference. 

It  was  soon  learned  by  the  Commission  that  the 
subject  of  a  "Deaconess'  Home  "  had  been  under  dis- 
cussion by  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society, 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  539 

and  that  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  had  already 
been  set  aside  as  a  nucleus  for  the  necessary  fund. 
This  sum  was  turned  over  to  the  Commission,  and 
was  shortly  increased  by  a  gift  of  one  hundred  dol- 
lars for  the  same  purpose. 

"  This  accumulation  of  funds  necessitated  the  selec- 
tion of  a  Treasurer  for  the  Commission ;  and  Mrs.  J. 
W.  Cushing,  who  has  ever  since  so  courageously  and 
faithfully  borne  the  financial  anxieties  of  the  enter- 
prise, was  unanimously  elected  to  that  office. 

"In  the  mean  time  the  advantages  and  needs  of 
the  '  Deaconess  Movement '  were  kept  before  the 
public  through  the  medium  of  the  Zions  Herald  and 
some  of  the  leading  secular  papers  of  Boston  ;  and 
in  response  to  these  articles,  there  came  at  the  third 
meeting  of  the  Commission  an  offer  of  five  hundred 
dollars,  to  be  used  for  the  rental  for  one  year  of  apart- 
ments suitable  for  a  Deaconess'  Home. 

"A  thorough  search  in  different  sections  of  our 
city  by  the  committee,  revealed  the  fact  that  a  suit- 
able place  could  not  be  secured  for  that  sum ;  but 
this  search  also  brought  to  their  notice  a  very  desir- 
able piece  of  property  on  East  Chester  Park,  wliich 
seemed  to  be  peculiarly  fitted  for  this  purpose,  both 
in  its  arrangement  and  location,  and  which  could  be 
purchased  for  seven  thousand  six  hundred  dollars, 
providing  the  purchase  could  be  made  at  once.  As 
the  committee  was  not  yet  a  corporate  body,  and  espe- 
cially as  it  had  but  little  money,  it  seemed  impossible 
to  bring  about  this  very  greatly  to  be  desired  result. 

"  Just  at  this  critical  juncture,  however,  a  noble 


540  CENTENNIAL  OP 

friend  of  Methodism,  and  one  of  God's  faithful  stew- 
ards, came  to  our  relief,  offering  to  purchase  the 
property  liimself,  and  hold  it  for  us  until  such  time 
as  the  committee  could  become  responsible  for  it. 

"After  a  number  of  such  apparently  insurmount- 
able difficulties  had  been  providentially  removed, 
your  committee  felt  that  preliminary  work  must 
be  counted  a  thing  of  the  past,  and  that  definite 
action  must  begin.  Accordingly,  on  the  12th  of 
July,  1889,  the  following  trustees  were  duly  incor- 
porated under  the  laws  of  our  Commonwealth,  under 
the  corporate  name  of  'The  New  England  Deaconess' 
Home  and  Training-School : '  W.  N.  Brodbeck,  W. 
P.  Adams,  W.  R.  Clark,  Isabella  A.  Cushing,  Harriet 
M.  Warren,  Emma  H.  Watkins,  Alden  Avery,  Charles 
Woodbury,  Charles  Parkhurst. 

"  The  following  officers  were  then  elected :  W.  N. 
Brodbeck,  President;  W.  R.  Clark,  Vice-President ; 
Emma  H.  Watkins,  Secretary  ;  Isabella  A.  Cushing, 
Treasurer ;  W.  P.  Adams,  Auditor. 

"  In  accordance  with  a  provision  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, these  officers,  together  with  the  directors  here- 
after named,  constitute  a  Board  of  Managers,  who 
have  the  general  supervision  of  the  property,  and  the 
direction  of  the  Home  and  School.  These  directors 
are.  Miss  P.  J.  Walden,  Mrs.  M.  P.  Alderman,  Miss 
Elizabeth  Pierce,  Mrs.  P.  C.  Bacon,  Rev.  T.  C.  Wat- 
kins, Rev.  E.  M.  Taylor,  Rev.  C.  S.  Rogers,  Mrs.  Dr. 
Bryant,  Mrs.  Josephine  Dyer,  Rev.  G.  S.  Chadbourne, 
Rev.  G.  A.  Crawford,  Mrs.  Harriet  M.  Warren,  Mrs. 
O.  H.  Durrell,  Mrs.  Lewis  Flanders,  E.  O.  Fiske. 


NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM.  641 

"  In  harmony  with  another  provision  of  the  Con- 
stitution, the  Presiding  Elders  of  the  New  EngUind 
Conference  are  ex  officio  members  of  the  Corpora- 
tion. 

"  The  property  on  East  Chester  Park  has  been  put 
in  thorough  repair,  and  the  house  is  comfortably  fur- 
nished. About  one  tliousand  four  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  in  addition  to  the  amounts  named  above  have 
been  contributed  and  expended  for  repairs  and  fur- 
nishing ;  and  in  addition  to  this,  donations  in  labor, 
stock,  furnishings,  groceries,  and  other  supplies,  to 
the  value  of  one  thousand  dollars,  have  been  received. 
So  that  now  we  have  a  property  there  worth  not  less 
than  ten  thousand  dollars,  in  perfect  repair,  and  with 
practically  no  indebtedness  upon  it  except  the  five 
thousand  dollars  mortgage,  bearing  interest  at  four 
per  cent.^ 

"  Mrs.  Lucy  Ryder  Meyer  of  Chicago  was  present 
upon  the  occasion  of  the  reception  given  the  '  Board 
of  Managers  '  by  the  Boston  Methodist  Social  Union, 
Nov.  17,  1889,  and  by  her  earnest  and  eloquent 
words  awakened  increased  interest  in,  and  sympathy 
for,  the  movement.  Following  that  reception,  on  the 
evening  of  the  twentieth  of  November,  occurred  the 
formal  opening  and  dedication  of  the  Home.  Miss 
Isabella  Thoburn  of  Cincinnati  was  present  on  that 
occasion,  and  uttered  hearty  words  of  congratulation 
and  encouragement.  Upon  invitation  of  the  Board  of 
Managers,  she  kindly  remained  a  few  weeks  with  us, 

^  The  mortgage  is  now  reduced  to  four  thousand  five  hundred  dol- 
lars, with  a  fair  prospect  of  its  entire  liquidation  before  July,  1891. 


542  NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM. 

giving  us  the  benefit  of  her  counsel  and  experience 
in  organizing  and  developing  the  work  of  the  deacon- 
esses. Through  the  courtesy  of  ]\Irs.  Meyer,  the 
Board  has  been  able  to  secure  from  the  Chicago 
Training-School,  in  the  person  of  Miss  Mary  Lunn, 
a  superintendent  for  our  Home,  whose  rare  Christian 
character  and  educational  accomplishments  eminently 
fit  her  for  the  critical  responsibilities  of  that  exacting 
position.  Under  her  supervision  the  work  of  the 
School  and  Home  is  going  forward  grandly." 

The  above  quotation  from  the  report  of  the  Com- 
mission gives  some  idea  of  what  has  been  done  in 
securing  a  "  Home."  No  report  can  give  an  adequate 
idea  of  the  grand  work  done  by  the  Deaconesses. 
Tlie  homes  of  the  poor,  the  haunts  of  sin,  the  cham- 
bers of  the  sick,  all  have  felt  their  sweet  influence. 
Here  is  an  opportunity  for  consecrated,  intelligent 
women  to  put  themselves  in  the  way  of  doing  grand 
work  for  God  and  humanity. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

OTHER    INSTITUTIONS  —  concluded. 
BEVIIGR ants'    home,   EAST   BOSTON,   MASS. 

BY    5IRS.    REV.  GEORGE    W.    MANSFIELD. 

The  need  of  a  Home  for  Immigrants  in  East  Bos- 
ton was  first  felt  and  agitated  by  Rev.  D.  S.  Sorlin, 


then  pastor  of  the  Boston  Swedish  Mission.  In 
the  winter  of  1887-88  he  interested  Rev.  and  Mrs. 
V.  A.  Cooper  in  the  cause,   Mrs.  Cooper  being  at 

[543] 


544  CENTENNIAL  OP 

that  time  President  of  the  "  Woman's  Home  Mission- 
ary Society  "  of  the  New  England  Conference.  Revs. 
Sorlin  and  Cooper  brought  the  matter  before  the 
"  Boston  Preacliers'  Meeting,"  and  the  members  were 
so  interested  that  they  appointed  a  committee  of 
three,  —  Revs.  V.  A.  Cooper,  L.  R.  Thayer,  and  L. 
B.Bates,  —  to  consult  with  a  committee  from  the 
Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society,  —  Mrs.  V.  A. 
Cooper  and  Miss  Maria  Newhall  constituting  that 
committee,  —  these  to  investigate  and  report  the 
demand  for  such  a  Home. 

It  was  ascertained  that  between  thirty  and  forty 
thousand  immigrants  were  yearly  landed  in  East 
Boston;  that,  notwithstanding  the  care  taken  by  the 
officiary  of  the  different  lines  of  steamers,  many  girls 
were  decoyed  by  the  lurking  destroyers  of  the  souls 
and  bodies  of  women,  and  ruined,  some  never  heard 
from  after  landing ;  that  the  street  facing  the 
wharves  was  lined  with  liquor-saloons  of  all  kinds; 
that  the  lodgingr  and  refreshment  houses  all  had 
liquor  bars  attached,  and  no  temperance  house  offered 
a  resting-place  for  the  weary,  sea-sick,  homeless 
immigrant.  To  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary 
Society  this  was  a  call  of  God  to  care  for  the 
strangers  within  their  gates.  Subscription  books 
were  opened,  that  we  might  have  funds  sufficient  to 
care  for  such  a  Home  until  the  fall,  wlien  the  work, 
if  successful,  could  be  brought  before  the  General 
Executive  Board  of  the  Society.  The  Preachers 
were  the  first  to  subscribe,  and  some  took  the  books 
to  circulate.     After  much  prayer  and  great  anxiety, 


NEW   ENGLAND   METHODISM.  545 

with  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  promised,  a  house 
was  rented  at  No,  10  Haynes  Street,  and  opened  as 
an  Immigrant  Home,  May  15, 1888.  Its  seven  lodg- 
ing-rooms and  reception-room  were  furnished  by 
Auxiliaries  of  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society 
in  and  near  Boston.  Mrs.  A.  A.  Clark,  of  Lynn, 
Mass.,  an  English-speaking  Swede,  was  employed  as 
Missionary.  Her  duty  was  to  be  at  the  wharf  on 
the  landing  of  all  incoming  steamers,  and  to  take  to 
the  Home  all  unprotected  and  friendless  young  girls, 
also  women  and  children  waiting  for  friends,  or  in 
need  of  advice. 

These,  if  able,  were  to  pay  twenty-five  cents  a 
night  for  lodging,  and  could  either  board  themselves 
or  pay  for  the  cost  of  food.  One  hundred  and  forty- 
four  were  cared  for  the  first  six  months.  Prayer- 
meetings  were  held  two  or  three  nights  in  each  week. 
The  General  Executive  Board  of  the  Woman's  Home 
Missionary  Society  met  at  Tremont  Street  Church, 
Boston,  the  following  October.  A  plea  was  made 
to  them,  by  the  local  Board,  to  adopt  this  work. 
The  following  Committee,  Revs.  V.  A.  Cooper,  D. 
H.  Ela,  and  W.  I.  Haven,  from  Boston  Preachers' 
Meeting,  presented  resolutions  and  made  addresses 
in  favor  of  the  movement.  The  General  Executive 
Board  adopted  this  child  of  promise,  and  the  East 
Boston  Immigrants'  Home  was  no  longer  an  experi- 
ment. The  next  March,  1889,  we  were  fortunate  in 
hiring  the  house  at  No.  5Q  Marginal  Street,  facing 
Cunard  Wharf,  which  was  our  Home  for  little  over 
a  year.  Here  we  had  twelve  rooms  and  better 
accommodations,  and  the  work  grew  rapidly. 


546  CENTENNIAL  OP 

The  first  year  four  hundred  and  eleven  were  cared 
for  in  the  Home,  and  nearl}'  one  hundred  helped  to 
find  friends  and  employment,  who  were  not  occu- 
pants of  the  Home.  It  was  found  very  difficult,  on 
account  of  the  increase  of  the  work,  to  find  a  house 
adapted  in  location  and  appliances,  of  which  we 
could  obtain  a  lease,  and  hence  we  felt  our  quarters 
were  so  insecure  that  the  need  was  imperative  for 
purchasing  a  Home. 

We  could  only  petition  Him  who  had  given  us 
the  work  to  do,  and  wait  results.  God  put  it  into 
the  heart  of  a  Mary,  one  of  Boston's  noble  Christian 
women,  to  bring  a  precious  gift,  which,  like  the  oint- 
ment of  ancient  time,  sent  forth  a  fragrance  which 
stirred  other  pure  minds,  and  is  likewise  recorded  in 
God's  Book  in  the  Alcoves  of  Heaven.  Her  first 
offer  was  four  thousand  and  five  hundred  dollars,  to 
purchase  the  house  then  occupied  as  the  Home  —  56 
Marginal  Street.  We  could  not  purchase  that, 
though  we  tried  long  and  hard ;  but  God  had  some- 
thing better  in  store  for  us ;  and  through  ]\Ir.  A.  R. 
Whittier,  of  Boston,  we  found  72  and  74  Marginal 
Street,  the  next  building  to  us,  could  be  bought  for 
fourteen  thousand  dollars,  if  six  thousand  cash  was 
paid. 

Our  generous  friend  then  pledged  another  five 
hundred  dollars,  making  the  princely  gift  of  five 
thousand  dollars,  and  advancing  the  first  five  hun- 
dred to  close  the  bargain.  Generous  friends  from 
various  parts  of  the  Conference  and  State  enabled 
us  to  secure  the  other  thousand ;  and  the  building, 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM.  647 

represented  by  the  accompanying  cut,  became  the 
property  of  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  February  8th, 
1890.  It  is  of  wood,  four  stories  high,  slate  roof, 
and,  when  bought,  had  two  liquor-saloons  with  four- 
teen rooms  over  each  saloon.  The  repairs  on  the 
whole  building,  and  the  fitting  of  half  of  it  for  our 
use,  cost  over  three  thousand  dollars.  Two  thousand 
dollars  have  been  paid  on  repairs,  making  eight 
thousand  dollars  in  all,  and  leaving  a  debt  of  nine 
thousand  dollars  at  this  writing. 

The  saloon  on  the  side  we  occupy  has  been  con- 
verted into  a  chapel ;  and  mingled  prayer  and  praise 
now  make  hearts  glad  where,  for  nineteen  years, 
blasphemy  and  the  ribald  jest  had  made  nights  hid- 
eous. 

May  28th,  1890,  the  Home  was  formally  dedicated. 
Bishop  R.  S.  Foster  presided,  and  made  a  stirring 
address.  Several  ministerial  brethren  took  part  in 
the  services,  and  Rev.  V.  A.  Cooper  read  an  interest- 
ing sketch  of  history  prepared  by  Mrs.  Cooper. 
The  crowded  chapel  testified  to  the  deep  interest  the 
people  felt  in  the  occasion.  A  sale  of  useful  and  fancy 
articles  followed,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Home.  The 
girls  who  had  received  benefit  from  this  Home  first 
suggested  the  sale,  and  spent  both  time  and  money 
liberally  to  make  it  a  success.  The  ladies  of  East 
Boston  greatly  aided  in  the  work.  In  the  second,  or 
last,  year  of  our  work,  five  hundred  and  five  of  all 
nationalities  have  been  sheltered  in  the  Home,  and 
nearly  three  hundred  others  helped  in  various  ways, 


548  CENTENNIAL  OP 

makiiiof  eight  hundred  who  have  come  under  the 
direct  intluence  of  our  Missionarj'-  and  Home. 

Four  thousand  nine  hundred  and  twenty-three 
meals  have  been  furnished.  There  have  been  one 
hundred  and  eighty -eight  religious  meetings  held  in 
the  Home.  Eight  have  professed  conversion,  and 
very  many  have  asked  for  prayers,  and  gone  out 
pledged  to  a  better  life.  Swedes,  Norwegians,  and 
English-speaking  people  each  hold  one  evening 
meeting  a  week.  A  Swedish  Sunday  school  is  held 
every  Lord's  day.  A  self-supporting  evening  school 
for  Swedes  to  learn  the  English  language  meets  once 
a  week.  A  sewing-school  was  successfully  carried 
forward  last  winter,  and  will  be  opened  again  this 
winter. 

Owing  to  this  great  increase  of  work,  we  have 
been  obliged  to  employ  a  Helper  for  our  Missionary, 
Mrs.  Clark  ;  and  ]\Irs.  Annie  Roach,  an  English  lady, 
has  been  secured.  These,  with  the  domestic,  make 
three  workers  in  the  Home. 

The  figures  given  but  faintly  eKpress  the  amount 
of  good  accomplished  in  this  Home  the  past  year. 
Girls  have  been  rescued  from  the  snares  of  the 
fowler ;  sad,  desolate,  homesick,  despairing  souls 
have  been  cheered,  advised,  and  sent  out  rejoicing, 
to  lead  a  life  of  usefulness,  directed  not  only  to  good 
earthly  homes,  but  to  the  Heavenly  Home.  Young 
men  have  been  induced  to  sign  the  temperance 
pledge,  and  begin  a  life  of  sobriety.  This  work  has 
wonderfully  developed  in  the  two  and  a  half  years 
of  its  existence.     We  cannot  doubt  the  leadings  of 


NEW  ENGLAND  METHODISM. 


549 


Providence.  We  see  many  other  openings  for  use- 
fulness, which  we  would  like  to  enter ;  but,  until 
our  debt  is  paid,  we  must  not,  cannot^  greatly  enlarge 
our  work.  All  are  most  cordially  invited  to  visit,  at 
any  time,  our  Home  at  No.  72  Marginal  Street,  East 
Boston,  and  also  invited  to  help  remove  our  debt. 
Mrs.  L.  R.  Thayer,  Newtonville,  Mass.,  is  our  Treas- 
urer, and  will  be  happy  to  acknowledge  all  dona- 
tions. Remember  Christ's  words :  "  I  was  a  stranger 
and  ye  took  me  in." 

WESLEYAN   HOME,   NEWTON,   MASS. 

FROM   THE   UKPORT  OF  1890. 


WESLEYAN     HOME. 


The  Wesleyan  Home,  incorporated  in  1883,  is 
established  for  the  care  and  education  of  children 
of  our  foreign  Missionaries,  who  feel  the  necessity 


550  CENTENNIAL  OF 

of  leaving  them  in  a  Christian  land,  and  also  for  the 
children  of  ministers  and  of  members  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church.  There  are,  no  doubt,  many 
such  children  whom  it  would  be  desirable  to  place 
under  the  fostering  care  of  a  genuine  Home,  where 
they  could  have  parental  oversight,  and  secure  the 
advantages  of  religious  training  and  most  excellent 
schools. 

This  Home  is  located  in  the  beautiful  city  of 
Newton,  Mass.,  seven  miles  from  Boston.  The 
depot,  five  churches,  and  the  best  of  schools,  are 
within  five  minutes'  walk  of  the  Home. 

The  moral  atmosphere  is  excellent,  there  being  no 
saloons  or  other  contaminating  influences  allowed 
by  the  city.  No  purer  or  safer  location  for  children 
could  have  been  selected.  Accommodation  is  pro- 
vided for  about  twenty  children,  under  the  care  of  a 
most  efficient  matron.  During  the  past  year  nine- 
teen boys  and  girls,  between  four  and  thirteen  years 
of  age,  have  shared  its  privileges. 

The  generous  endowment  of  the  Home,  amount- 
ing to  twenty  thousand  dollars,  was  the  gift  of  Hon. 
Jacob  Sleeper,  of  Boston,  whose  varied  benefactions 
were  large  and  numerous.  A  prominent  layman 
supplemented  the  endowment  by  the  generous  gift 
of  the  attractive  house  and  grounds ;  and  the  fur- 
nishings were  mostly  presented  by  Mrs.  Charles  W. 
Pierce,  of  Boston,  and  the  family  of  Hon.  Jacob 
Sleeper. 

The  original  suggestion  came  from  the  death-bed 
of  a  little  girl  in  Taunton,  Mass.,  in  1881,  who  gave 


NEW  ENGLAND   METHODISM.  651 

her  small  savings  for  such  a  purpose.  Other  simi- 
lar offerings  were  made ;  and  other  timely  gifts  of 
larger  or  smaller  sums  of  money,  amounting  to  four- 
teen hundred  dollars,  and  also  liberal  presents  of 
household  supplies  from  many  friends,  have  been 
previously  acknowledged. 

During  the  past  year  over  fifty  persons  have  made 
contributions  of  money,  table  supplies,  clothing,  and 
other  needed  articles. 

Thus  a  widespread  interest  has  been  manifested, 
which,  it  is  hoped,  will  be  largely  increased,  and  lead  to 
other  liberal  donations  by  the  living,  and  to  legacies 
from  those  who  have  been  blessed  with  this  world's 
goods. 

There  are  many  institutions  which  care  for  the 
destitute  and  homeless,  who  are  taken  from  the  sur- 
roundings of  poverty  and  evil,  and  find  them  friends 
who  will  either  adopt  them,  or,  by  other  means,  put 
them  in  the  way  of  future  thrift  and  prosperity. 
Such  institutions  merit  earnest  commendation  and 
support ;  but  it  is  the  purpose  of  the  Directors  to 
receive  only  such  children  into  the  Wesleyan  Home 
as  may  be  fitting  associates  of  those  who  come  from 
Christian  families.  While  some  will  be  cheerfully 
admitted  from  whom  little  or  no  pecuniary  remunera- 
tion is  received,  it  is  expected  that  those  who  are 
able  will  pay  a  moderate  amount  to  aid  in  meeting 
the  necessary  expenses.  This  course  is  required,  as 
the  income  is  not  sufficient  to  make  the  Home  abso- 
lutely free.  The  charges  will  be  graduated,  accord- 
ing to  the  judgment  of  the  Board  of  Direction. 


552  NEW   ENGLAND  METHODISM. 

We  cordially  invite  our  Missionaries  who  are 
desirous  of  leaving  their  children  under  the  care  of 
true  guardians  and  friends,  to  consider  the  object 
and  management  of  this  pleasant  Christian  Home. 

Correspondence  in  reference  to  the  admission  and 
discharge  of  children  should  be  directed  to  the  Presi- 
dent, Hon.  Alden  Speare,  P.  O.  Box  3070,  ]5oston, 
Mass. ;  and  any  general  inquiries  as  to  the  Home  or 
children  should  be  directed  to  Mrs.  Mary  McLaren, 
Matron  of  the  Wesleyan  Home,  Newton,  Mass. 

The  assets  of  the  Corporation,  as  taken  from  the 
Treasurer's  Annual  Report,  January  9,  1890,  are,  — 

Real  Estate,  Wesley  Street,  Newton    ....  $9,000.00 

Bonds  and  Stocks 19,200.00 

Furniture  and  Fixtures 1,000.00 

Unpaid  Subscriptions 125.00 

Cash 208.62 

$29,533.02 


APPENDIX. 


William  Ellery  Channing.  —  Channing  was  born 
April  7,  1780,  at  Newport,  K.I.,  and  entered  Harvard 
only  four  years  after  Jesse  Lee  preached  his  first 
sermon  on  Boston  Common.  It  was  not  until  1819, 
when  Channing  was  thirty-nine  years  old,  tliat  he 
preached  the  famous  sermon  which  marked  his  defin- 
ite separation  from  his  brethren. 


The  First  Methodist  Sunday-school. — The 
claim  that  the  first  Methodist  Sunday-school  in  New 
England  was  started  in  the  Common  Street  Church  in 
Lynn,  is  disputed  by  St.  Paul's,  of  the  same  city. 
Before  us  lies  a  well-printed  pamphlet,  containing 
the  address  of  Bro.  Graves,  in  defence  of  the  claim  of 
St.  Paul's.  Rev.  Dr.  W.  R.  Clarke  writes  to  us 
that  he  considers  Mr.  Graves'  points  well  taken,  and 
his  arguments  conclusive.  We  do  not  undertake  to 
render  an  opinion.  Li  a  conflict  of  ages,  much 
depends  upon  the  standpoint  from  which  one  views 
the  subject  under  discussion.     "  Let  us  have  peace." 

[S533 


554  APPENDIX. 

Newbury  Biblical  Institute. — Prof.  O.  C.  Baker 
(afterward  Bishop  Baker),  Principal  of  Newbury 
Seminary,  formed  what  was  called  a  "  theological 
class."  Just  at  what  date  this  was  established,  I  do 
not  know.  In  the  spring  terra  of  1843,  I  first  knew 
it,  and  became  connected  with  it.  I  know  also  that 
it  had  been  in  existence  some  time  prior  to  this. 

This  class  made  Watson's  Theological  Institutes 
their  text-book.  Prof.  Baker  was  their  teacher. 
They  also  studied  the  Methodist  Discipline,  and  he 
gave  free  talks  upon  it,  which,  I  judge,  were  the 
basis  of  "  Baker  on  the  Discipline."  There  was 
another  exercise  called  the  Monday  evening  exercise, 
in  which  two  students  each  would  preach  a  short 
sermon  for  criticism.  Professors  and  resident  clergy- 
men were  wont  to  act  as  critics.  Some  time  during 
the  same  year.  Rev.  W.  M.  \yillitt  came  to  strengthen 
the  teaching  force,  and  this  department  took  the 
name  of  the  "  Newbury  Biblical  Institute."  Prof. 
Willitt  taught  Hebrew  and  New  Testament  Greek, 
and  instituted  a  plan  for  preaching  services  by  the 
students  in  all  the  outlying  country,  for  several  miles 
around.  Later  on,  John  Dempster,  D.D.,  came,  and 
there  were  added  to  the  studies  of  the  elates,  mental 
and  moral  science  and  Church  history.  Dr.  Demp- 
ster also  gave  lectures  on  various  subjects. 

This  institute  was  never  incorporated  as  a  distinct 
school,  although  it  was  hoped  it  would  be,  and  some 
funds  were  raised  for  it  as  such.  There  was  also 
quite  an  amount  of  lumber  obtained  and  piled  up  upon 
the   campus,   which    was   said   to  be  designed  for  a 


APPENDIX.  665 

theological  building.  When,  however,  the  theolog- 
ical thought  of  New  England  Methodism  had 
crystalized,  the  school  was  located  at  Concord,  N.H., 
instead  of  Newbury,  Vt. 

The  school  continued  here  until  the  close  of  the 
spring  term  of  1846,  and  when  it  opened  again  it  was 
Concord  Biblical  Institute,  with  Dr.  John  Dempster 
at  its  head,  with  quite  a  sprinkling  of  former  students 
in  attendance. 

J.  A.  Sherburn, 

Barre,  Vt.,  Nov.  28,  1899. 


Delegates  and  Visitors Delegates  from  New 

England  Conference.  Clergymen:  —  Rev.  I.  H. 
Packard ;  Rev.  W.  T.  Perrin  ;  Rev.  J.  M.  Leonard ; 
Rev.  David  Sherman.  Laymen:  —  A.  R.  Whittier, 
Hyde  Park ;  C.  J.  Glidden,  Lowell ;  Edwin  H. 
Johnson,  Lynn  ;  L.  E.  Hitchcock,  Chicopee. 

Delegates  from  New  England  Southern  Con- 
ference. Clergymen  :  — Rev.  G.  H.  Bates  ;  Rev.  F. 
D.  Blakeslee  ;  Rev.  W.  J.  Yates.  Laymen :  —  W.  H. 
Washburn  ;  David  Gordon  ;  R.  S.  Douglass. 

Delegates  from  New  York  East  Conference. 
Clergymen: — Rev.  J.  M.  Buckley;  Rev.  George 
Lansing  Taylor.  Laymen: — E.  J.  Hill;  R.  J.  Hib- 
bard. 

Delegates  from  Troy  Conference.  Clergy- 
men:—  Rev.  J.  E.  C.  Sawyer;  Rev.  Henry  A.  Starks. 
Laymen :  —  Dr.  R.  A.  Guild  ;   Hon.  A.  B.  Wright. 


556  appendix. 

Delegates  from  New  Hampshire  Conference. 
Clergymen:  —  Rev.  Charles  W.  Bradlee  ;  Kev.  W.  E. 
Bennett  ;  Rev.  Thomas  Tyrie.  Laymen  :  —  A.  F. 
Pike  ;  Horace  W.  Gilman  ;  Hon.  Harrison  Haley. 

Delegates  from  Vermont  Conference.  Cler- 
gymen:—Wqy.  G.  E.  Smith;  Rev.  N.  W.  Wilder; 
Rev.  J.  A.  Sherbiirn  ;  Rev.  W.  M.  Gillis.  Laymen : 
—  E.  R.  Toole  ;  S.  H.  Hobson  ;  R.  H.  Brown  ;  Philip 
Boyce. 

Delegates  from  Maine  Conference.  Clergy- 
men :  —  Rev.  Daniel  B.  Randall ;  Rev.  C.  F.  Allen ; 
Rev.  Enos  T.  Adams.     Layman  :  —  Hon.  H.  H.  Shaw. 

Delegates  from  East  Maine  Conference. 
Clergymen:  —  Rev.  G.  D.  Lindsay;  Rev.  C.  A. 
Plumer;  Rev.  O.  H.  Fernald.  Laymen:  —  T.  H. 
Wentworth;  A.  Yates;  O.  C.  Ward. 

Educational  Institutions.  Rev.  D.  C.  Knowles, 
D.D. ;  Rev.  A.  F.  Chase,  Ph.D. ;  Rev.  J.  D.  Beeman, 
A.M.;  Rev.  Edgar  M.  Smith,  D.D.;  Prof.  Herbert 
Lowell  Rich ;  Rev.  E.  A.  Bishop,  A.M. 

Visitors.  Rev.  B.  P.  Raymond,  D.D. ;  Rev.  A. 
M.  Courtenay,  D.D. ;  Rev.  F.  H.  Bristol,  D.D.;  Rev. 
Hugh  Johnston,  D.D.  ;  Rev.  S.  F.  Upham,  D.D. ; 
Rev.  Bishop  W.  F.  Mallalieu,  D.D.:  Rev.  D.  A. 
Whedon,  D.D. 


Report  of  the  Finance  Committee.  —  It  was 
decided  by  the  committee  that  no  collections  should 
be  taken  at  any  of  tlie  meetings,  but  tliat  the  funds 
necessary  to  pay  the  expenses  should  be  raised  by 


APPENDIX.  557 

private  subscription.  My  thanks  are  due  to  the  other 
members  of  the  committee,  Hon.  E.  H.  Dunn,  Hon.  C. 
C.  Corbin,  and  Dwight  Smith,  Esq.,  for  their  generous 
subscriptions ;  also  to  the  following  gentlemen : 
Ex-Gov.  Wm.  Claflin,  Hon.  Alden  Speare,  Hon.  H. 
O.  Houghton,  Hon.  J.  K.  C.  Sleeper,  Dr.  H.  O. 
Marcy,  Capt.  J.  B.  Thomas,  J.  A.  Woolson,  Esq., 
J.  F.  Almy,  Esq.,  Chas.  Butler,  Esq.,  Geo.  D.  Sar- 
geant,  Esq.,  E.  H.  Johnson,  Esq.,  Silas  Peirce,  Esq., 
for  their  subscriptions  so  cheerfully  given,  which 
enabled  the  committee  to  pay  all  the  bills  and  have 
a  surplus  to  return,  pro  rata,  to  the  donors. 

Oliver  H.  Dureell, 

Chairman. 


INDEX. 


Academy,  Wesleyau,  467. 
Academy,    East    Greenwich, 

475. 
Adams,  Rev.  Charles,  456. 
Agency,  Free  Moral,  Restored, 

147. 
Allen,  Rev.  S.,  442. 
Areopagus  of  Jesse  Lee,  393. 
Arniinius,  James,  386. 
Asbury,  Bishop,   18,  181,  517, 

520. 
Asbury  First  Church,  517. 
Association,  Wesleyan,  534. 
Atonement,  357. 
Awakening,  Great,  245. 

Baird,  Dr.,  219. 

Baker,  Bishop,  186,  456,  507. 

Baldwin,  Rev.  Dr.,  505. 

Baldwin,  Rev.  Thomas,  280. 

Bangs,  Rev.  Nathan,  16,  371. 

Banks,  Rev.  L.  A.,  505. 

Barrows,  Rev.  L.  D.,  213. 

Bascom,  Rev.  John,  222. 

Bashford,  Rev.  Dr.,  522. 

Bates,  Rev.  Dr.,  346,  393,  397. 

Baur,  Christian  Ferdinand, 
122. 

Beale,  Rev.  Oliver,  185. 

Beeman,  Rev.  J.  D.,  4.59. 

Bible,  Belief  Concerning,  362. 

Bishop,  Principal,  460. 

Bishops,  Limitations  of  Au- 
thority of,  216. 

Bishops  from  New  England, 
366. 

Black,  Rev.  William,  13. 

Blakeslee,  Principal,  476. 

Book  Agents,  Notable,  371. 

Brackett,  Governor,  311. 


Bragdon,  Prof.  C.  C,  481,  484. 
Brainerd,  David,  242. 
Bristol,  Rev.  Dr.,  284,  334. 
Brodbeck,  Rev.  W.  N.,  .340. 
Bromfield  Street  Church,  497. 
Brooks,  Rev.  Phillips,  283. 
Buckley,  Rev.  Dr.,  174,  328. 
Butler,  Rev.  Dr.  William,  85, 
.504. 

Calvinism,  Statement  of,  64. 

Chadbourne,  Rev.  Dr.,  104. 

Channing,  W.  E.,  280. 

Chase,  Principal,  436. 

Chestnut  Street  Church  His- 
tory, 519. 

Chestnut  Street  Church  Pas- 
tors, 523. 

Christ,  Historic,  Faith  in  not 
essential,  151. 

Christianity,  Four    Elements 
of,  375. 

Clarke,  Rev.  Dr.,  512. 

Clark,  Rev.  C;  J.,  522. 

Clark,  Rev.  Laban,  416. 

Claflin,  Lee,  422. 

Claflin,  Ex-Governor  William, 
47,  423. 

College,  Cokesbury,  171. 

College  first  founded  by  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  169. 

College      first     planned     by 
Wesley,  169. 

Conference,  Christmas,  34. 

Conference,      General,     New 
England  in,  184. 

Confession,  Boston,  157. 

Convention,  Officers  of,  3. 

Cooke,  Rev.  Edward,  469. 

Cooper,  Rev.  V.  A.,  543. 

[559] 


560 


INDEX. 


Corbin,  Hon.  C.  C,  303. 
Courtenay,  Rev.  Dr.,  28,  314. 
Crawford,  Kev.  G.  A.,  504. 
Cummings,  Rev.  Dr.,  499. 
dishing.  Rev.  C.  W.,  481. 
Cu.shing,  Mrs.  J.  W.,  539. 
Customs,  How  divided,  222. 

Dartmouth,  Lord,  243. 

Davis,  Rev.  C.  E.,  509. 

Davis,  Samuel,  243. 

Day,  Rev.  J.  R.,  522. 

Deaconess'  Home,  Sketch  of, 
538. 

Deaconess'  Home,  Trustees 
and  Directors,  540. 

Decrees,  Eternal,  152. 

Depravity,  Human,  145. 

Determinism,  Theistic,  1.57. 

Doctrine,  Methodist,  At  pres- 
ent held,  350. 

Dorchester,  Rev.  D.,  517. 

Dorchester  Street  Church,  504. 

Dunn,  Hon.  E.  H.,  325. 

Dunn,  Nathaniel,  467,  510. 

Durrell,  Hon.  O.  H.,  193. 

Eckly,  Rev.  Dr.,  279. 
Eden,  Inheritance  from,  146. 
Education,  Higher,  228. 
Educators,  New  England,  369. 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  245. 
Edwards,  Mrs.,    Raptures  of, 

247. 
Ela,  Rev.  Dr.,  237. 
Elm,  Old,  .397. 
Episcopius,  387. 
Eschatology,  360. 
Everett,  Edward,  229. 

Faith,   Plymouth  Declaration 

of,  1.54. 
Faith,  What  Kind  Saves,  151. 
Fellows,  Rev.  Nathaniel,  469. 
Fillmore,  Daniel,  499. 
Fisk,  Wilbur,  185,  211,  467. 
Foster,  Bishop,  4,  .547. 
Free  Baptist  Church,  242. 
Frelinghuysen,  Jacob,  240. 
Freeman,  Rev.  James,  279. 


Goal,  Actual  and  Ideal,  159. 
Granger,  Noah,  459. 
Grant,  General,  268. 
Gray,  Prof.  Asa,  124. 
Greene,  Rev.  R.  L.,  505,  .509. 
Guilt    Attaches    to    Personal 
Action,  147. 

0 

Hamilton,  Rev.  Dr.,  51,  508. 
Hanaford,  Rev.  J.  L.,502. 
Hart,  Mayor,  322. 
Haven,  Bishop  E.  O.,  182. 
Haven,    Bishop    Gilbert,   181, 

214. 
Haven,  Rev.  W.  I.,  2.53. 
Hedding,  Bishop,  276,  281,  499, 

512. 
Herald,  Ziori's,  History,  526. 
Herald,  Zion's,  Editors,  531. 
Herald,  Zion's,  Publishers,  532. 
Hill,  President,  231. 
Hills,  Rev.  C.  D.,  512. 
Hinman,  Rev.  C.  T.,  4.56. 
Hough,  Rev.  Alfred  J.,  393. 
Howard,  Rev.  R.  H.,.385. 
Hutchinson,  Mrs.  Anne,  239. 
Huxley,  Professor,  118. 

Immigrants'  Home,  543. 
Infants,  How  Saved,  151. 
Itinerant  Plan,  197. 

Jackson,  Benjamin,  99. 
Janes,  Bishop,  186. 
Johnson,  Oliver,  183. 
Johnston,  Rev.  Dr.,  11. 
Johnston,  Miss  Jane,  434. 
Journalism      in     New     Eng- 
land, 181. 

Kibby,  Rev.  Epaphras,  521. 
Kilburn,  Rev.  David,  .521. 
Kimball,  Hon.  C.  E.,  99. 
King,  Rev.  Dr.,  217. 
King,  Rev.  J.  E.,  457. 
Knowles,  President,  449. 
Knox,  Rev.  L.  L.,  4-34. 

Lasell,  Pi'O lessor,  481. 
League,  Ep  worth,  254. 


INDEX. 


561 


Lee,  Jesse,  14,  28,  38,  43,  51, 
160,  377,  393,  511,  513,  515, 
519. 

Limborcli,  Phillippus,  387. 

Losee,  William,  14. 

Lynn  Common  Church,  511. 

Mallalieu,  Bishop,  256,  305, 
512. 

McCabe,  Chaplain,  385. 

McKeown,  Rev.  Dr.,  522. 

Merrill,  Amos  B.,  471. 

Merritt,  Timothy,  372. 

Methodism  Accused  of  Pela- 
gianism,  145. 

Methodism  Affirms  Human 
Depravity,  145. 

Methodism  Affirms  Universal 
Salvation,  144. 

Methodism  as  a  Mission 
Force,  256. 

Methodism  does  not  Hold 
Men  Guilty  for  Adam's 
Sin,  147. 

Methodism  has  Changed 
Social  Customs,  218. 

Methodism  Jealous  of  its  Or- 
thodoxy, 176. 

Methodism,  Threefold,  238. 

Methodist,  Description  of,  by 
Wesley,  139. 

Methodists :  Difference  be- 
tween them  and  Jevps, 
etc.,  140. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
God's  Design,  138. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  New  England,  Statis- 
tics, 8. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
The  Twenty-four  Arti- 
cles, 142. 

Methodist  Church  in  Can- 
ada, 20. 

Moral  Condition,  Natural,  355. 

Muir,  Professor,  123. 

Newman,  Bishop,  507. 
Norris,  Samuel,  182. 
Norwalk,  Conn.,  513. 


Olin,  Stephen,  189. 

Park,  Professor,  154,  330. 

Parkhurst,  Rev.  Dr.,  206. 

Patten,  Rev.  David,  468. 

Peirce,  Rev.  T.  C,  .500. 

Peirce,  Rev.  Dr.,  B.  K.,  182. 

People's  Church,  508. 

Perfection,  Christian,  107. 

Perseverance,  Not  uncondi- 
tional, 152. 

Pews,  System  of,  179. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  183. 

Plumer,  Rev.  C.  A.,  375. 

Population,  Proportion  in  Cit- 
ies  201. 

Portland  Circuit,  520. 

Priest,  Zadoc  275. 

Principles,  Pedagogical,  160. 

Question,  Southern  Race,  226. 
Questions,  Social,  220,  224. 

Rand,  Franklin,  215. 
Randall,  Rev.  D.  B.,  442. 
Randall,  Joshua,  177. 
Raymond,  President,  116,  416. 
Reformation,  Augustinian,  385. 
Responsibility,    What   makes 

it,  148. 
Restieaux,  Thomas,  401. 
Rich,  Isaac,  422. 
Righteousness,  Imputed,  359. 
Riley,  James  Whitcomb,  292. 
Rogers,  Rev.  Dr.,  1. 
Ryerson,  Edgerton,  19. 

Sanctiflcation,  What  is  it,  150. 
Sawyer,  Rev.  J.  E.  C,  193. 
Scarlett,  Father,  273. 
Schajffle  the  Socialist,  222. 
School,    Boston    Correspond- 
ence, 536. 
Schools,  Free  Common,  228. 
Schools,  Sunday,  78. 
Science,  Function  of,  220. 
Science,  Social,  221. 
Scipio  and  Slave,  175. 
Scott,  Orange,  182, 209, 211,  212. 
Seminary,  East  Maine,  433. 


562 


INDEX. 


Seminary,    Maine    Wesleyan, 

441. 
Seminary,    New    Hampshire, 
f     449. 

Seminary,  Vermont,  455. 
Seminary,  Lasell,  481. 
Sherman,  Rev.  Dr.,  365,  509. 
Sias,  Solomon,  527. 
Simpson,  Bishop,  509,  518. 
Slavery,  Attitude  of    Bishop 

Hedding,  211. 
Slavery,   Attitude    of    Maine 

Conference,  212. 
Slavery,     Attitude      of    New 

Hampshire  Conference,  210. 
Slavery,      Attitude    of     New 

England  Conference,  210. 
Slavery,  Attitude  of  Method- 
ism, 208. 
Slavery,     Attitude    of      New 

England,  182. 
Slavery,    Attitude    of    ZioJi's 

Herald,  210. 
Smith,  President,  444. 
Snelling,  Joseph,  401. 
Sociology,  Christian,  220. 
Soule,   Bishop,  185,  270,  512, 

520. 
Speare,  Hon.  Alden,  137. 
St.  John's  Church,  500. 
Stanley,  Dean,  on  the  Wesleys 

and  Methodism,  217. 
Steele,  Dr.  Daniel,  215. 
Steele,  Dr.  G.  M.,  351,  470. 
Stevens,  Abel,   181,   188,  372, 

.501. 
Strawbridge,  33. 

Taylor,  Bishop,  "Holy  Liv- 
ing," 138. 

Taylor,  Father,  409. 

Taylor,  Rev.  E.  M.,  264. 

Taylor,  Rev.  George  Lansing, 
120. 

Taylor,  Rev.  Joshua,  520. 

Tefft,  Rev.  B.  F.,  476. 

Temperance  and  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  227. 


Tennent,  Mrs.,  242. 
Todt,  Herr,  234. 
Torsey,  Rev.  H.  P.,  443. 
Trafton,  Rev.  Dr.,  86. 
Tremont  Sti-eet  Church,  .500. 
Twombly,  Rev.  Dr.,  70. 
Tyng,  Dr.,  219. 

Ulrici,  122. 

University,  Boston,  422. 
University,  Wesleyan,  415. 
Upham,  Rev.  Dr.,  266. 

Vail,  Dr.  Stephen  M.,  179. 

Warren,  Bishop,  507. 

Warren,  President,  142,  155, 
424. 

Watson,  Richard,  141, 

Wealth  and  the  Laborer,  230. 

Wedgewood,  Mrs.  Julia,  53. 

Wesley,  John,  Description  of 
Methodist,  139. 

Wesley,  John,  Idea  of  Play, 
298. 

Wesley,  John,  Key  to  Method- 
ism, 137. 

Wesley,  John,  Letter  from, 
296. 

Wesley,  John,  On  Slavery, 
207. 

Wesley,  John,  What  kind  of 
Arminian,  141. 

Wesleyan  Association,  .5-34. 

Weslevan  Home,  549. 

Wesleyan  Theology,  Main 
features,  353. 

Whedon,  Dr.  D.  A.,  137. 

Whi  taker,  Rev.  N.  T.,  519. 

AVhitefield,  George,  On  slav- 
ery, 207. 

Wiley,  Rev.  Ephraim,  521. 

Wise,  Rev.  Daniel,  181,  .373. 

Witness  of  tlie  Spirit,  149. 

Womanhood,  Emancipation 
of,  226. 

Wright,  Rev.  A.  A.,  530. 

Wright,  Rev.  M.  E.,  504. 


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